Wings Of The Eagles
by Legend Maker
Summary: Arc 7, Part 1 of 4. What do mysterious motorcyclists, adult magazines, musings on Machiavelli, and suggested new names for the Big Bang have in common? Well, you'll just have to read the Titans' new adventure to find out, won't you?
1. Prelude: And Watch As They All Fly Away

**Wings of the Eagles**

Prelude: And Watch As They All Fly Away…

Or

Why The Mass Media Sucks Eggs

Their names were David, Dylan, and Brandy. All of their parents were very rich. All three of the teenagers had had highly privileged lives. And at the moment, they were trying to light a homeless man on fire.

They had no real reason for this task. Sure, Brandy's mom had recently gotten a divorce and totally remade her body with surgery, while her father celebrated his new found freedom by running around with women not much older then her. And true, David's mom and dad worked so much they barely saw their son. And Dylan's parents…well, let's just say that somewhere in life, they lost the heat in their hearts that provided the certain something that defined humanity.

But despite those surely not very bad problems, the three teenagers had it pretty good. They had all the money they could want, and their parents had friends to ensure no one would hassle their children for small things. Their parents were sure that their kids would grow up to be fine people.

So here they were, squirting lighter fluid on a homeless man, who was either extremely drunk or suffered from an extreme mental illness, as he offered no resistance except for squirming around against the trunk of the tree they had found him sleeping against, wrapped in stinking rags that had once been clothes, and making some muttering groans of protest. The main person behind the idea was David, who wanted to see what would happen. Plus, the idea of doing what he chose to someone else, no matter what it was, gave him a charge that no amount of drugs had been able to provide. Brandy was curious as well, and Dylan, well, he was so stoned it was a miracle he was standing up.

The three had nothing against the guy they were covering with accelerant. But hey, he was a worthless bum! No one would miss him! Hell, they would be doing the world a favour, right?

Perhaps psychiatrists could better theorize on the terrible rage and cruelty these children had within them, and the origins of that sickness. What mattered was the fact that they were going to set a human being, one who had never seen them before and would have never wished them any malice or harm if he had, on fire, simply because they thought it would be a kick.

"What are you doing?"

David had been fumbling for his lighter when he heard the voice, and the stoned and drunk teenagers, still not down from their drug use and the buzz their brains had gotten with the concept of lighting a man on fire, turned around.

The man who had confronted them wore blue jeans and a dark leather jacket that he had zipped up. His hands were in his pockets, and he wore one of those French hats that artists wore (What were their names, David pondered. Barrets? Purvies?) on his head, with a wide brim that covered his eyes when he leaned his head down. He was doing that now, and appeared to be looking at the ground, due to the slight tilt of his head. It was a visual trick however: he was indeed looking at the three teenagers.

"What do YOU care?" David snapped, angered that he had been interrupted.

"Well, I do. Unless my eyes are failing me, and my nose, I think you are dousing that man behind you with some kind of flammable liquid. Now…might I ask…just why are you doing that?"

"Who cares! Go away!" Brandy half snapped, half giggled, her rational mind in a fog from the pot she had smoked, and also, it wasn't that well developed in the first place.

"Um, no. It looks as if you are going to light that man on fire."

"You have a problem?" David said, hunting for the switchblade he carried. He'd show this punk what happened to people who tried to show him up. David had played football for a time, before he had been kicked off the team. His teammates and coach had sucked anyway.

"Yes. I do. It appears we have three little punks trying to commit a murder for no real reason then doing it. From that, I can only gleam two things. You need to be stopped, and damn, are you pathetic."

"WHAT!" David yelled, his anger surging up from the taunt. He finally found his knife and flicked it out. Forget setting the bum on fire. He was going to carve up this guy first.

"Oh, scary." The man said.

And he lifted his arm, and a white line of energy suddenly shot from his palm, striking out at great speed and removing the knife from David's hand before he knew what happened. He gaped at the man.

"Scarier." The man said. He had had both his hands in his jacket pockets before, and one was still in it. His hand twisted, and suddenly the black jacket shook a bit and then the black vanished, replaced by a bright white colour. Removing his hand from the switch that changed the colour, Savior pulled off his beret and let his spiky white hair spill out from underneath the hat. The three teenagers could finally see his eyes, and they did not look happy.

"Oh shit! It's one of the Titans!" Dylan yelled. His cocky arrogance and violent anger had faded as fast as they appeared, an illusion of youth and inexperience, lacking any real substance, David took the path of many a sadist: faced with someone who could fight back, he ran.

For two steps, before Shimmer strands lashed out and wrapped around his legs, jerking him off his feet. Brandy had tried to escape herself and failed as well: Dylan had mostly stood there, his brain so messed up he couldn't figure out which way was up or even that he had been grabbed and jerked off his feet.

Savior crossed his arms as the Shimmer pulled the struggling David in front of him.

"Put me down! Let me go!" David yelled.

"Why?" Savior asked.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Should I?"

"Hey, put us down! We didn't do anything!" Brandy yelled.

"Judging from the way you smell, I'd say possession of some kind of controlled substance. Enough that I could smell you when you walked by. What else, oh yeah, YOU WERE ABOUT TO SET A MAN ON FIRE!"

"But we didn't!" David said. Savior had to bite back the urge to slam David into the ground head first.

"You don't get it, do you? You were about to commit an act of intentional, barbaric cruelty against an innocent, defenceless man. Do you even have any idea what you were about to do? Why?"

"We were bored." Brandy blurted out. She never did know when to keep her mouth shut.

"YOU WERE BORED!?!??!?!" Savior thundered. He gritted his teeth and yanked David in closer.

"I had hoped you people would have learned a lesson from the Final Night. But, as always, you learn NOTHING. Fine then. I guess it falls to me to teach you a lesson!"

"Hey man, leave us alone!" David yelled.

"No. You wanna set people on fire, big man? You think that makes you important? Think it gives you power? I assume by your clothing and jewellery that your parents are probably well off. You know, they ought to declare a law against rich people having kids. Spoiling kids rotten does NOT produce good results." Savior snapped, his anger boiling through him, both at what the children had been about to do and from memories dragged up from his own childhood, of his own peers, selfish and self-righteous, thinking the world owed them anything they chose, that the people without as much money as them were little more then playthings to be used as they chose and then discarded.

And most of all, if it hadn't been for his mother, that Savior, aka Noel Collins, probably would have turned out just like them.

"Let me tell you the truth, you pieces of shit. You are NOTHING. ALL OF YOU. You have no power. Any power you have is an illusion, smoke and mirrors, easily dispelled by someone with true power! Someone like me. This world owes you nothing. But you certainly owe the world something. Maybe your parents didn't teach you this rule, so I will do it now. Actions have CONSEQUENCES. And an act like yours…there is a high price to pay indeed." Savior growled.

Through the fog of drugs and self-righteousness that controlled David's mind, a sudden fear finally bloomed, as his animal mind temporarily gained control and sent David a primitive message he mostly read on a subconscious level: he was face to face with a superior predator, and it was MAD.

And unable to best it on an animal level, David instead turned to the techniques of the higher beings.

"You can't do this! You're a superhero! Superheroes don't do this!" David yelled.

"Yeah, if you do this you'll be a bad guy man!" Brandy added.

Savior's expression did not change.

"Two things, you scum. One, you had better never visit Gotham. And two…I am not a superhero because I have to be. I am because I CHOOSE to be. This is no law bound into my genes or powers that says I can't teacth you a lesson because it doesn't fit with what the classic archetype of what a 'superhero' would do."

"We'll sue you!" Brandy yelled.

"Yes, I am certain you will try. That's the kind of people your parents most likely are. Nothing they do is their fault. It's always the fault of something or someone else. Your honour, my client's children are suffering from severe emotional problems because some bully metahuman wouldn't let them carry out their psychopathic desire to burn a vagrant!" Savior said in a mocking lawyer tone. "Try it, you pieces of shit. I helped stop the Lord of the Night, and I contributed a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears to rebuild this city after he turned it into a charnel pit. The public would turn you into a pariah, and the government, well, they'd throw it out so fast it would probably hit Mach 2. At least, I hope they would. People have notoriously short memories these days."

Savior lifted his hand and started stroking his chin.

"But I know just what will happen if I bring you in. You'll be out in an hour. Your parents will hire lawyers whose great cost is only outnumbered by the great deal of dirty tricks they can use to arrange your release, make the charges go away, hell, even spin the media so it looks like the justice system is picking on some poor rich children. And you go on your merry way to try and hurt someone else for whatever sick reason you have. You know what? I don't care. You children did a bad thing. And if the justice system won't punish you, I SURE AS HELL WILL."

"You can't!" David yelled as Savior shot out more Shimmer strands, grabbing onto the tree. The bum that the three rich kids had planned to burn had already passed back out. He wouldn't even remember the incident when he woke up again. As the three strands extending from Savior's right hand slid across the skin of his arm and stopped at the back of his shoulder, Savior looked at David in absolute disgust from the begging tone, a child who will not accept either reality or the pain of it.

Too bad, so sad. It was time to teach these kids about life.

"WATCH ME."

And the Shimmer retracted violently, throwing Savior through the air. David and Brandy screamed as their sense of vertigo kicked it. Dylan had already passed out: Savior let him sleep. He was the minor one: this boy and girl needed the lesson.

And what a lesson in how unpleasant it is to exert power over others for no other reason then because the person found it fun it was, as Savior flew through the air, tossing out another Shimmer line and swinging along the building. The strands holding David and Brandy bobbed and thrashed, distorting their vision and smashing any kind of perspective they could get as Savior swung, leapt, and bounced along the buildings.

The two kept screaming. Savior ignored it. He dove down, bleeding his momentum away with Shimmer lines before he landed on a truck.

"Hey, run Forrest run!" Savior yelled, and thrust David and Brandy down towards the road. The pain of having their feet dragged at such a speed convinced the two to move their legs like they were running. But humans cannot run as fast as cars, and it quickly developed into a series of "run a few steps, trip, get flipped or spun around by the Shimmer, drag feet until the heat becomes greater then the disorientation, repeat". Savior stood on the truck, manipulating the two like puppets with the Shimmer. He glanced over to the other side of the road and then yanked the two sideways so they were running against traffic. The teenagers screamed as some cars bore down on them…and then Savior yanked them back off as he bounced off the truck and flew up to another building. A Shimmer loop, followed by forcibly changing the energy so it had an elastic quality, threw Savior and the three kids high into the air.

"Having fun yet?" Savior said, as he finished his upward movement. It was quite a sight, as he stood there with his arms crossed, if you could call it standing when you're in thin air and upset side a few thousand feet above the ground. The two just started screaming again as gravity took over and Savior fell. He sighed and flipped over, catching a building and tossing him across a skyline. He grabbed a nearby telephone pole as he flew in his horizontal voyage and twisted himself around and up. Shimmer strands extended and looped under his boots as he landed, and then he began running along the telephone wires.

"AH! STOP! STOP! WE'LL BE ELECTROCUTED!" David screamed.

"No we won't! Birds sit on telephone wires and THEY aren't electrocuted!" Savior said. "Unless, of course, they accidentally touch one of the poles and are grounded-OOOPPPSS ALMOST TOUCHED THAT POLE!" Savior yelled as he leapt over one of the wooden pole attachments that the wires rested on. The very loud scream indicated that the two definitely did not like the joke.

Leaping off the wires, Savior swung back into the city and bounced/pulled/swung his way across the skylight until he finally came to rest on top of one of the tallest buildings in Jump City. It had a tall pointy spire at the top, much like the Empire State building, and Savior balanced on it while he looked at the bright lights of night time Jump City.

"What a magnificent view!" Savior commented. The two teenagers were too busy screaming for help to notice. Savior's eyes fell onto one of the other very tall buildings in Jump City: it was about 1 ½ miles away.

"Hey, do you think we can jump all the way from here to there?" Savior asked.

"NOOOOOO!"

"Oh I'm sorry, today is Opposite Day!" Savior said, as he leapt back. He grabbed the spire with twin Shimmer strands, and then with all the power he could muster, he made the strands throw him forward.

"So this is what it's like to fly…" Savior muttered to himself as he spiralled across the sky towards the building he had aimed for.

And fell about ten feet short, plummeting down towards the street as the two teenagers shrieked in horror.

"Ah nuts, missed it!" Savior said, seemingly unconcerned that he was falling head first towards a hard concrete road. "Now let's see: 78 stories, 10 feet per story, add in factor of acceleration thirty two feet per second per second…that means I have to do this right about…now."

Shimmer lines flew from Savior's hand, striking the ground. Savior fell as they bent under him like a spring, the concrete underneath them cracking as they took up the momentum. Savior's head (or more accurately, his hair) stopped ¾ of a foot from the ground, and then the coiled wires under him sprang and he flew sideways, where he did several flips and landed, the impact driving him to his knees.

He got up, brushed himself off, and then dumped his unwilling passengers in front of him, laying down Dylan gently. Dylan had slept through the whole thing, and Savior knew he was just a tagalong who was too stoned to know what he was doing. David and Brandy had been the ones who had really wanted to see the bum lit on fire. The two were now far too stunned and shocked to move. Savior scooped them up via their ankles and brought them in front of him again, dangling them upside down before him as he lightly slapped their faces to bring them back together.

"Now you listen good, you little fucktards." Savior hissed. "You will go back home. You will get help, or commit suicide, or whatever, I really don't care. You mean nothing in the grand scheme of things anyway. NOTHING. You are a speck of a dust on a speck of dust, and I have a feeling you will always be that way. You're far too weak and pathetic to ever ascend past such a thing. But know this. If I ever find out you did anything like this again, if I ever see your faces on the news or even on the STREET, I will hunt you down. And I'll do more then take you for a ride. I'll reach into those wasted, cruel brains of yours and cross so many wires you'll wake up every day screaming and go to sleep every day crying. This is a city I protect, and I don't care how much money you have or how important you think your parents are. YOU ARE NOTHING. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE NOTHING. And if you think I will tolerate nothings committing acts of cruelty and indifference, you are wrong. Now get the hell out of my sight!"

Savior tossed the two down again. He spat in their general direction and turned away.

And saw the camera.

It was sheer chance, actually. The reporter who was now staring at Savior, a female who had said nothing to avoid alerting the teenager, had been one of many, a small fry at her station, who had been sent to cover some political meeting. But she had gotten turned around when leaving, and had gone out an obscure side door rather then the main door where all the other reporters were. And she, and her cameraman, had stumbled onto one of the Titans dangling two teenagers in front of him while he spoke to them in an angry threatening tone. The camera was too far away to really pick up any sound, but it had certainly picked up Savior's image.

The reporter would have fled, except Savior was over to her side before she could blink, gently looping a line around her waist and the waist of her cameraman so they couldn't run away. The cameraman, a seasoned pro, kept rolling.

"Please tell me that's a tape." Savior said calmly.

The reporter stared straight ahead at Savior. Had she had more experience, she would have started barraging Savior with questions. But she was a rookie, and the concept of being face to face with an angry metahuman scared her. So she said nothing.

But she did shake her head.  Savior's brow darkened, and then she finally spoke.

"We're live." The reporter said.

Savior looked unhappy, and then he reached over and pulled the camera around so it was facing him.

"People of Jump City, listen to me! I am Savior, of the Teen Titans. What you may have just seen will most likely be spun as the act of a power mad teenager, a bully who is abusing the power he has been given. At least, I am certain that is how it will be spun in repeat broadcasts, as sure as this bit will be deleted. But for those watching this initial broadcast, listen and learn. Do not allow these parasites' need for a "great story" cloud the truth, it is folly and it should be below you!"

"Those two teenagers you saw me with, I stopped them from committing an act know in some circles as 'bum-burning'. If you are not familiar with that lexicon, I will explain it. Bum-burning is an act where a homeless person is set on fire. Not for any real reason, but because the person doing it is bored. It is an act of barbaric cruelty, and those two teenagers were doing it with glee. I will not tolerate such things, and I will not allow such acts to go unpunished. So why did I not just turn them over to the law? Simple: they are the children of wealthy people who would have bought their way out of it. I know that to be the truth and so should you! And to the parents to those kids, get them some damn help. They're trying to immolate vagabonds."

"Do I have a right to do such a thing, you may ask? Maybe, maybe not. But I know this. Myself, and my team, sacrificed a great deal for this city, in trying to prevent crime in it and in rebuilding it after the Final Night. But these acts and sacrifices have not come without a cost to us. We will not allow people to harm others, and we will have ZERO TOLERENCE for anyone we catch or stop doing so. So to all the criminals and evil ones hiding in the shadows, remember this somewhat misquoted phrase: If you do the crime, you WILL do the time, and pay the price. ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. And we will make sure you reap everything you sow. That is all. Now these two will go back to their TV station and spin this so that I am the villain and the ones I punished are the victims. The truth doesn't matter, only the story does. Long live yellow journalism! Long live the mass media!" Savior crowed sarcastically, and then smashed the camera lens.

"Hey! That's expensive!" the cameraman complained.

"And you're going to roast me on a spit because your bloody kind makes a living tearing down people so that the masses can feel better about their tiny, pathetic lives. Send me the bill." Savior snapped. He frisked the two to check and make sure they didn't have a tape recorder that had recorded his last words, and then he stomped off.

He'd gotten about half a block when a shadow portal opened and Raven stepped out.

"Good day my lady. I'd wish you were here for some romance, but I am not stupid. What is it, Raven?" Savior asked.

"Robin wants to see you."

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!!!!!!!" Robin yelled at the sitting Savior. The rest of the Titans were there, but they were mostly in the background, trying their best to act invisible.

"I was teaching a few punks a lesson. I think I spun it fairly well, all things considered."

"You hung them upside down and said you would re-wire their brains if you saw them again! In front of a member of the media!"

"And THEY were about to light a homeless man on fire. Quid pro quo. I would never follow through on my threat, and you know it Robin. THEY, on the other hand, would have burned that poor man alive and gone on their merry way if I hadn't shown up. You know it and I know it. I don't think you'd be this unhappy with my choice of punishment if it hadn't been caught on TV."

"That's where you're wrong, Noel. There's a thin line between good intentions and cruel intentions, and you crossed it. Acts like that are beyond the pale!"

"So what was I suppose to do? Let them get away? Give them to the police? HAH! The lawyers their parents could hire would spin the evidence into oblivion. They'd say the guy they were about to burn was no good because he was homeless and I was no good because of…well, I was sure they'd find a reason. Those kids wouldn't be punished. They'd go home to their big mansions and their parents would probably buy them another car to try and make the trauma of being bullied by the superhero go away. You don't give cruelty like that a slap on the wrist. You squash it before it blooms. If you don't, you may very well make another Lord! You want another Final Night, Robin? Because out there are the seeds for another 100 of them, more likely then not, if we don't stop them!"

"By using their tactics? By acting like them? Noel, that's not stopping the Lord of the Night! That's BECOMING the Lord of the Night!"

"You take that back!"

"You stop acting like a lunatic!"

"I will not allow some punk rich kids to get away with such an act!"

"If you don't stop using those methods you will not be on this team any more!"

"And if you don't put some steel in your spine, you will prove to be the weak link when the next lunatic comes along with a genocidal plan to kill us and the world!"

And Robin, much to the shock of the rest of the Titans, reared back and decked Savior in the face. Savior stumbled back, sitting back down in the chair he had been sitting in until recently, holding his nose. Starfire gasped.

For a moment, you could hear a pin drop.

And then Savior's eyes cleared, and he sighed, pulling his hand away from his nose. Blood flowed freely from it.

"Thanks Robin. I needed that. I was crossing over the line." Savior said.

"Quick stop them before…wha? Noel, you think that was a good idea?" Beast Boy said.

"Sometimes being a leader means making some hard decisions, like knowing when a guy really needs a punch in the nose. I did. I was acting irrational and needed a reality check. Thank you." Savior said as Raven handed him some tissue.

"It doesn't change the problem Noel. The press is going to lynch us for this."

"The press is going to lynch us no matter WHAT we do, Robin. That's what the media does. They tell stories. Above all else, stories. And no story is better then tearing someone down from a pedestal. Never mind they put us on that pedestal in the first place…" Savior muttered. "I don't know what to do. After the Final Night, and all the Lord did, I just saw those kids, without any idea what they were doing, trying to kill a man because they thought it would be fun. And it just made me so ANGRY…"

"And it's not the first time." Robin said. And Noel knew it. When he was under stress, he tended to get mean, or worse, cruel. The legacy of HIS life, much like the teens whose own set of improper nuturings had led them to try and set a bum on fire.

"Duly noted. But hey, what can you do? People are going to do bad things, normal and meta alike. And we have to stop them. And sometimes we'll cross the line just like they do…" Savior said.

"Not you Noel. I think you need a time out." Robin said.

The Titans looked at Robin, and then at Savior. Savior had arched an eyebrow.

"How so?"

"I think you need to get away from this city. From this team. The media notwithstanding, this atmosphere isn't proving to be good for you. I think a new environment would benefit you."

"So you're kicking me off?" Savior said.

"Not yet, though if you keep pulling shit like that, I definitely will. But I think you need something else Noel. I think you need some boredom."

The Titans looked at each other in confusion, and then Beast Boy and Cyborg came to the realization.

"Dude, are you gonna…"

"Yeah." Robin said to Beast Boy.

"Dude, I dunno, Noel acted out of line, but I don't think he deserves to be tortured because of it."

"It might not be torture to him." Raven said.

"May I point out I'm still here and cannot read your mind unless I use the Shimmer, and I won't do that if you just explain what you're talking about." Savior said.

"Well Noel, there's this….well, meeting." Robin explained. "You see, for all the good we do, there are a whole bunch of problems we cause. Property damage, jurisdictions, all kinds of legal garbage and red tape that would choke us…but some time ago we managed to work something out. Every year every major team, and any team or hero that wants to act with any "official" backing and not get arrested by the police every time they try and do some good, has to send a member to attend. Basically, it's a very long, very repetitive progress of filling out forms, spending long hours listening to very boring people talk, having meetings with the same people as they talk with very big words, and then doing it all over again with another country, and another. Like I said, it's terribly boring."

"Trust me man." Beast Boy said.

"Yeah. Normally I do it, but one year I was unavailable and we had to send Beast Boy. We nearly got most of our major licenses revoked because he kept falling asleep. Though I fault the setup more then Gar. I think those government bigwigs get a kick out of subverting any metahumans anyway they can." Robin muttered.

"For obvious reasons. You want me to attend this year?"

"It would solve our problems. You get some time to cool off, and the media will lose a lot of firepower if you aren't here."

"I again stress my belief that my problems are more a matter of environment and recent history rather then myself, but I see your point. When does it start?"

"In a few days. I would have brought it up tomorrow at a meeting if not for this little…incident."

"Right. I'll go pack." Savior said as he got up, dabbing the bloody tissue at his nose as he left the room.

Some time later, Noel was debating whether to bring any books or buy new ones when Raven knocked at his door.

"Evening." Noel said.

"Hey." Raven replied. "Um…"

"If you have anything to say about my inappropriate but still very much needed IMODO outburst, just say it."

"Well, not really, though I don't approve…" Raven said, sitting on Noel's bed.

"We all have times where our emotions get the best of us. You should know that all too well. By the way…"

"No. Nothing." Raven said. She still hadn't seen any evidence her father, who had broken free and corrupted her before the Titans had banished him back to his prison some time ago, had managed to re-assume any influence over her. If he did, then her emotions would start causing problems again. But so far, nothing. As far as Raven knew, it would be like that the rest of her life. But better to be careful then dead…inside, anyway.

"Good. So, what do you want to do?"

"I think I'll stay with the Titans. It just needs one of us…and I'd probably be a distraction…" Raven said, blushing.

"That, you would." Noel said, sitting down next to her. He put his arm around her, and she snuggled against him.

"Noel?" she said after a bit.

"Yes?"

"Are you mad at Robin for this?"

"You tell me. You're the mind reader."

"I'm not going to do that. The last time I tried to do that on your advice, you projected all those perverted images of me."

"I did that to bug you, not because I meant it."

"Yeah well, it worked, you hentai."

"As planned."

"Ok, THAT'S IT." Raven said, pulling away and shoving Noel playfully. "You think you're so clever, with all that stuff you read about battle and strategies. Well my dear, there is one possible think you can never plan for or prepare against."

"Oh really? What?"

"The terrible…pillow attack!" Raven yelled, grabbing up a pillow and bopping Noel across the face with it. Noel flew back as if he had been hit with a hammer.

"Ow. Ok, I admit I could have never prepared for the absurd image of you playfully hitting me with a pillow." Noel said.

"So I win?"

"No, I just adapted to it." Noel replied, and grabbed up his own pillow and bopped Raven back. She shrieked and hit him again, Noel countered, and the two started a pillow war.

_Oh man, I've having a pillow fight with my boyfriend, acting like a child, and I don't care! Things really have changed!_ Raven said as she and Noel rolled over the bed hitting each other with pillows. Finally Raven grabbed up some more pillows with her powers and started using them all at once.

"HEY! NO POWERS! THAT'S CHEATING!" Noel yelled.

"You're just saying that because you're losing, wimp!" Raven said.

"Wimp? Doubled, and RE-DOUBLED, Birdy!" Noel yelled as he grabbed up more pillows with the Shimmer. The resulting battle eventually filled the room with feathers and caused Noel's bed to collapse.

With the inside of his room now filled with swirling white, like a winter storm without cold, Noel lay on his now collapsed bed, Raven cradled in one arm. She leaned over and the two kissed.

"I'll miss you." She whispered.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder." Noel replied.

"You sure?"

"Not really, but I do know familiarity breeds contempt. In this world, there's evidence enough of that." Noel said, blowing away a feather that had landed on his nose. "Besides, you can visit me. It's not like I'm going to be on the moon. Oh wait, you can teleport. You could visit me even if I WAS on the moon."

Raven giggled. The sound, to Noel, was both alien in its newness and joyful in its existence. Even if their relationship didn't work out, Noel would always be glad he had given Raven the gift of feeling whatever she chose, without the need to repress or destroy it.

The feather landed on his nose again. Noel blew it away.

"So…what do you want to do?" Raven said.

"Let's just lie here for a while, and pretend the world is a place…that doesn't need the likes of us." Noel replied.

So they did.

But, sadly, in the end the old adage proved true. If wishes were horses, all beggers would ride.

"Wow. Nice car." Savior commented, looking at the fancy vehicle Robin had driven out of the garage.

"It's mine, but I'll lend it to you for now. Even you can't swing all the way to New York." Robin said. 

"How long is this event anyway?" Savior asked.

"It depends on a lot of things. Could be a few weeks, could be a few months, thought it's not like they lock you up during the whole time." Robin said. "And if we really need you, well, you'll know."

"Most likely."

"Noel, do you have a problem with this?" Robin asked.

"Not really. You are the leader for a reason, Tim. As I said, leaders have to make tough decisions. You think I need a break, and you think this will help. I'll respect your opinion. Batman did pick you for his protégé, after all. And considering his mind, I doubt he did it through a lottery. The Titans survived before I was around, they can survive without me. Plus, I can probably handle this just as well as you. My dad did teach me a few things about THESE kind of things, regretfully."

"Hey, Noel…" Robin said, putting a hand on Savior's shoulder. "You're not your father."

"Yeah. But he's a part of me. Raven can certainly attest to that. And I think that recently…that part has been getting too much fuel. I need to put him in his place, and nothing better then filling in Forms A1 through Z600 and then listening to a bunch of lawyers basically find seven hours to tell us that our battles cause damage. If anything, it can bore him to death."

"Indeed."

"But tell ME Tim. Are you doing this for me…or just so you don't have to do it?"

"OK, GET GOING! NOW!" Robin yelled, shoving Savior in the car. He flipped over the door of the convertible and landed.

"Ow. I landed on the stick."

"It doesn't have a stick."

"Then I landed on my keys."

"The keys are in the ignition!"

"Then, um………….aw." Savior muttered, unable to think of another follow up. Robin grinned triumphantly and waved.

Savior started up the car.

And drove over Robin's foot. And though his heavily armoured boot prevented any injury, it still hurt, as he yelled and then actually did the classic "jump up and down while hold one's injured foot" dance.

"Never assume you've won until you're in the history books, Robin." Savior smirked, and drove off.

Robin put his sore foot down as he watched the retreating car. His eyes flickered over the room.

And then he snapped out his arm and hurled a Birdarang. It bounced off a wall, careened off another wall, flew outside and bounced off a tree, and then flew over Noel's head as he drove past, chopping off several spiky white locks.

"ARGH! MY HAIR!"

"Quid pro quo, Noel." Robin smirked.

He watched as the white haired member known as Savior left. That was good, he supposed. One less problem. He would have to adjust his plans slightly though.

As the car drove off, he called up another file. One eye watched the footage while the other watched the screen, as the fingers blurred over the keyboard in the dance only masters had.

There. Everything was in place. He just needed one more piece of data, and he was sure his contacts would get it eventually. Then it would finally begin. He had had some setbacks, but this time, he would succeed.

And if it worked, he would never even see the Teen Titans. It would happen with them thinking it was their enemy known as Slade.

But if but some way they did…he would be ready for that as well.

It was time.

The time for the common man to get back the world that was rightfully theirs.

Alright, Legend Maker here. Some people have said I focussed a bit too much on Savior in my story Black and White. Well then, ask and ye shall receive.

"Wings of the Eagles" will not be a long story like Black and White, but rather a whole bunch of short stories. As you can see, I have one already in the works, and I have a few more. After that though, if anyone has any suggestions, feel free to e-mail them to me. But for now, I am going to show that I can write without Savior, and I have the perfect antagonist for my first short story.

So until it is written, I will say this.

_Vox__ Populi, __Vox_Del.__


	2. Anarky: Does A Dog Have Buddha Nature?

Chapter 1: Does a Dog Have Buddha Nature?

Writer's Note: Ok, some things I need to say.

Originally, I was going to work on this story, and the story I just finished, Time and Time Again, was going to be an arc in it. But after giving some thought to it, I decided I liked Time enough to write it as its own story. Then I planned to write up to the point where it was supposed to appear in this story and then place it in here. But I have changed my mind again. So, for those reading this, and in case you missed the last chapter, Time is finished. This arc and others take place BEFORE it. When the events of Time happen, I will let you know.

On a second note, as of the time of this writing, I will be keeping the villain a secret and hence the first part of the arc is written ????? But when the NEXT part is written, he will have been revealed and hence the ????? will have been replaced with his name. Also, I didn't create the villain, DC did.

Anyway, let's begin.

There it was. The device that would finally allow him to bring the world back to the people.

The fact that he was viewing it pretty much made it his. He had worked tirelessly to create the perfect plan, and it was about to come to fruition. He would have been happy…

If there weren't a few wildcards still in place…

The Teen Titans. Really, they should have been an easy problem, if but for Robin. The protégé of the Bat shared his mentor's opinion of him, and he was nearly the Bat's equal in skill, and delusion. With him at the helm, Robin could blindly lead his group against him, thinking he was doing good. And the parasites would laugh at their deception, even as their poison spread even further…

His teeth ground slightly, but his anger quickly passed. He was rational, and he would find a solution. And unlike the parasites, he would do it in a way that caused no harm unless it was absolutely necessary. And even then, the harm would be the barest minimum.

And he didn't think it would even BE like that. His feint was in place. True, he abhorred deceit, but he wasn't using it for his own sake. He was using it so he could show the world, as well as the Titans, the light, a light they thought would harm them, and hence they would confront him if they got the chance. Because of THEM.

No, his small bit of misdirection was NOTHING like theirs. And even if he had to touch a small part of their evil in order to carry out his plan, he would never, EVER let it taint him and his destiny.

No force, no fraud. He would never let that go. He would believe it until his dying day.

A death he would gladly pass into, for he would have accomplished his purpose and saved the world. It was time to begin.

He flexed his fingers and then they became a blur as he rapidly gave his computers commands, his mind and the machine becoming one as he set out his programs to make their move.

There. It was done.

He stood, and with a swirl of red, he was gone, his hand snatching up his hat as he vanished into the shadows.

Robin was doing a Mensa puzzle when the alarm went off. To his credit, though he was startled a bit, he calmly put the pen down and dashed over to the computer.

By the time the other Titans had gathered around, Robin had traced the source of the alarm, pinpointed it on a map, and called up his direct route into the security system of the building to get a quick look at the threat. Forewarned was forearmed, after all.

A small part of his screen popped up with a video feed.

"Who is it? Cinderblock? Overload? Someone new?" Beast Boy asked. Robin enlarged the screen.

"Slade." He hissed.

Not Slade, actually, but his robots. They were in a jewellery store, and as the Titans watched, they did the proverbial running amok, smashing, grabbing, while firing their laser weapons at anyone who even got near them. Most of the people near them were just trying to get away, and their scared faces caused an even bigger surge of rage to erupt in Robin.

"TITANS…!" he began.

"Wait…" Cyborg said, stepping to the side.

"GO! GET-OWMMHHH!" Robin yelled as he leapt out of his chair and jumped right into Cyborg's chest. "VICTOR, MOVE! IT'S…"

"Rae, would you?" Cyborg said. Without thinking, Raven waved her hand, and suddenly Robin was encased in black energy. She and Cyborg had worked this out beforehand: if Cyborg said that when Robin was thinking about Slade, she tied him up so he didn't run off half cocked and get stuck in another Apprenticeship, or something similar. 

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING! WE NEED TO STOP SLADE! NOW! THIS IS MUTINY!" Robin screamed. 

"Tim, please calm down. I am sure Victor has a reason that he asked Raven to stop you."

"HE'S GOING TO GET AWAY!" Robin bellowed.

"But why is he even there in the first place?" Cyborg said. "Why would Slade need jewels?"

"Don't just think around money motives Vic! He might need a diamond to power a laser, or some old jewel that unlocks an ancient demon lock, or something even worse! We need to get there NOW!" Robin said, half logical and half still screaming.

"Dude, he has a point. Slade's Slade, he must have a reason." Beast Boy said.

"You got something there, I'll admit. Let him go Rae, let's book!" Cyborg said.

"If we're late because of you…!" Robin cursed.

"Yes I'll…" Cyborg said as he turned away…

Almost. Something caught the corner of his eye, and he turned around, even as the other Titans ran for the door. The image had been fleeting, but it had struck Cyborg powerfully, enough that he issued the command that he did.

"Door, lock."

The door slammed closed so suddenly Robin nearly ran into it.

"CYBORG, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

"He must be being controlled by something!" Beast Boy "rationalized".

"I'm not being controlled by anything! If I screwed us up, I'll take full responsibility!" Cyborg said as he typed on the keyboard.

"What are you doing?" Robin said.

"Playing back that last bit of video, something…" Cyborg said, as he finished rewinding and played the video back. Nothing leapt out at him.

"Victor…" Robin said in an aggravated tone.

"Cyborg, please, we must go, if only for the sake of Robin's blood vessels remaining unexploded in his cranial region…" Satrfire pleaded, as Cyborg rewound and played, and rewound and played, and rewound and…

THERE.

"Guys, look at this." Cyborg said, gesturing. Though part of him still looked like his head was going to explode, Robin headed over with the Titans.

"What?"

"This. Look at that robot on the right. Someone appears to shoot at him off screen, he jumps away, does a flip, lands, and goes on…"

"SO?"

"Look at how he lands."

"He just lands!"

"Actually, he slides. He landed at a fair angle."

"So?"

"So why wasn't the carpet under his feet disturbed?"

Robin opened his mouth, and then slowly closed it again as Cyborg rewound and played it again. He had been right: the carpet, despite not appearing to be glued or stapled down, didn't even ripple when the robot landed on it. And it was a fairly long landing: had the robot landed in sand, he would have left a two-foot trail at least.

"What the heck…?" Beast Boy said.

"Maybe Slade is making lighter robots!" Starfire suggested.

"Or maybe things aren't what they seem." Robin said, his Slade hatred vanishing as his instincts took over. "Cyborg, move over and jack into the network."

"On it." Cyborg replied as he scooted over, his arm shifting as some tools and wires emerged. Cyborg removed a panel on the computer with his other hand and inserted the gadgets, even as Robin began putting his own fair amount of computer knowledge to work.

In the end, Cyborg struck gold first.

"Robin, found something in here." Cyborg said, directing Robin. The robbery had long vanished into endless streams of code, and more popped up. "Look at the three lines near the middle."

"I see it." Robin said, his fingers tapping out a symphony of beats as he did something that the other Titans could only guess at.

"I think it's a…"

"It IS." Robin said, half in realization and half in wonderment.

"WHAT?" Beast Boy suddenly exploded.

"Someone hacked a feed into the security system of that jewel shop and placed a false video stream over the security camera's feed, and then they activated the alarm that notified us. But this code…it's brilliant…" Robin said.

"They even programmed the pressure sensors to flash in time with the robot's footsteps! If I hadn't caught that movement…"

"We've had bought it hook line and sinker." Robin said, as his fingers continued typing. "Only to find that when we got there…"

A new video appeared on the screen. It was the same jewellery store, but there was no robbery going on. One person stood look at watches, while two clerks manning the place stood around and just looked bored.

"This would be the REAL video, after I removed the false data being sent to us. SOMEONE doesn't want us around." Robin said.

"But who?" Starfire asked.

"That's what I'm going to find out!" Robin said. "Ready Victor?"

"Beginning backtrace now!" Cyborg said.

"Now what are they doing?" Beast Boy asked.

"They're basically doing what whoever did this in reverse." Raven said. She had some computer knowledge herself. "They use the data fed into the cameras to assumingly find the source. Unless there are safeguards…"

"There are." Cyborg said, gritting his teeth.

"But we can handle them…" Robin added, though a few sweat drops collecting at his brow made that assumption one to ponder. The two worked in silence for roughly 47 more seconds when Cyborg made a crowing noise.

"Got it! Found the source!"

"Inserting my own worm." Robin said. "Now, let's see…if we're being misdirected…computer, see if any other alarm systems in the city have been activated."

The computer scanned and came up with nothing.

"Gee, what a surprise. Ok Vic…NOW!"

"Done!"

"New scan!" Robin ordered. This time, the scan came back with one result.

"I'll be damned." Cyborg said. "This guy IS good."

"Not good enough." Robin said. The computer he had traced was so advanced that his worm had been discovered and eradicated almost immediately, but it had worked long enough to do its job: it had blocked the computer from handling any outside data. Including the alarm system it was keeping hidden from the Titans.

"Arco Tech Inc." Raven said.

"They make some real nice toys. I guess our comp G wants to play with a few." Robin said.

"Let's go and end playtime." Cyborg said as he removed his arm.

"Wait…Comp G?" Beast Boy thought out loud as the Titans dashed for the door again.

"Computer Genius…" Raven sighed.

Arco Tech Inc had a superb alarm system and highly trained guards. In the end it may as well had a wall of string and a five year old with a spitball.

His red-gloved hand reached out and took the chip. Phase 1 complete. Now for Phase 2, and then…

"Don't move."

He recognized the voice, and while a small part of him was surprised, most of him was not. He knew the skills that Robin possessed, and they had managed to overcome his trick. It was very admirable, if not a tad bit sad.

Because now he had to go to his backup plan.

And he hated using force when it was so unnecessary.

"Is that Slade?" Beast Boy asked. The figure had taken a few steps away from the podium where the computer chip had been, and hence the light was not directly on him, leaving the figure in shadows deep enough that one could only make out an outline.

"He seems to have indulged in a fashion change." Starfire said.

"That's not Slade." Robin said.

"Indeed. Well done Robin. You are truly made in your mentor's image to figure out my feint. And it is for the same reason that I won't ask you to step aside, for you and your friends are just as misguided…" he said, turning towards the Titans, stepping into the light.

He wore an outfit composed of long red sheets that draped over his arms and obscured his body. His hands held a gold cane, and his face was covered with a golden mask with white slits as eyes. The top of his head was a preacher's hat, also red, with a jagged letter on the front. An A.

Robin's eyes widened a bit in recognition, and then his face faded into a look of realization, explanation, and preparation.

"Lonnie Machin." He said.

"Come now Robin. I respected you enough to give you a trick worthy of your intelligence and lineage. At least return it enough to call me by my proper name."

Raven could have sworn Robin almost chuckled, as he glanced away and then back at the red garbed figure in front of him.

__

"ANARKY."

To Be Continued.


	3. Anarky: Revolution Number 9

Chapter 2: Revolution Number 9

Writer's Note: OK, for all those who were scratching their head in confusion, look up Angelfire Dot Com and add this after the Com

/ca2/HERORPG/Lonnie.html

I would have put the web address up itself, but for some reason it disappears when posted. 

BTW, since I find Anarky a good opponent but difficult to write, I am going to borrow a few lines from the comics he has appeared in. So if you read a line that sounds cool, I MAY have written it…or I might not have.

************

"The only justifiable purpose of political institutions is to ensure the unhampered development of the individual."

Albert Einstein

************

The one thing that came to Cyborg's mind as he looked at the teenager that Robin apparently knew, and had called Anarky, was "inconvenient".

Really. Robin had trained in a way to avoid having his cape mess him up, and he still occasionally had a bit of trouble with it. In comparison, Cyborg had no idea how the large amount of loose fabric that was draped over Anarky could help him without hindering him to an equal degree.

Perhaps that would make the fight easier, though Robin didn't seem to be relaxing.

"You know this guy Robin?" Cyborg asked, pointing at Anarky, who had not moved, continuing to stand there with his hands on his cane, the chip he had taken slipped somewhere in the long robes of his costume.

"A little. Haven't seen him since Batman kicked him out of Gotham though. Thought he had taken the hint and given up." Robin said.

"Given UP?" Anarky said, and sighed. "Robin, you disappoint me. Smart enough to decipher my ruse, and yet so blind. I worry that when the world finally is made right, you may not be able to find a place in it, despite you deserving one."

"What is he talking about?" Beast Boy said.

"His beliefs. He thinks the world is being destroyed by a shadow group who manipulate us all…"

"I don't BELIEVE, Robin." Anarky said. "I KNOW. It's why you're here. It's why you will try and stop me. Though I know it will be futile, I ask you to please step aside. I don't want to fight you. We are not enemies! You are being manipulated, just like the people! Let me carry out my task and open your eyes!"

"Sorry Lonnie. You have your beliefs, and we have ours. And we believe that committing acts of fraud, assault, and grand larceny is bad, and must be punished." Robin said, as the Titans spread out, preparing to attack.

"Please Robin. I don't want to fight." Anarky said, his head bowed slightly.

"Sorry man. We aren't giving you a choice." Cyborg said as he armed his sonic cannon.

"It is not your choice. But you cannot see that. A pity…" Anarky said. "I do not want to have to do this, but if you will not listen to reason…"

Robin knew Anarky: he had no metahuman talents. Hence, the speed at which he moved amazed Robin, as Anarky snapped his staff up and hurled it at the group.

And missed, as they dodged aside.

"You have to…!" Cyborg began as he aimed his cannon.

And realized, too late, that he had been tricked. For no sooner had Anarky thrown his staff that he had pulled back his cloak in a swirl of red, exposing a skintight bodysuit with several yellow tool holding devices and the same A symbol on his hat emblazoned on his chest.

And a crossbow tied to his side, a crossbow he had yanked up and aimed in less then half a second, the arrowhead in the shape of an A, as he fired at Cyborg.

And hit him in the arm, jerking his sonic cannon to the side even as the weapon fired, too late for Cyborg to stop it…

From slamming into Beast Boy, throwing him into the wall with a yell of surprise. Cyborg opened his mouth to issue his own expression of surprise, apology, and anger at the trick…

But he didn't get to, as Anarky's staff bounced off the wall at a precise angle and slammed into Cyborg's back, sending a huge electrical charge through him that scrambled all his systems, temporarily shutting them down as he fell…

And Anarky was there, grabbing up the staff, in the midst of the Titans so quickly they almost didn't realize it until he grabbed his staff up and swung. Raven only felt the impact as Anarky hit her on a precise spot on her temple, knocking her out.

Starfire flew back, Starbolts exploding into being on her hands…

And the orb exploded in her face. She had never seen him throw it, indeed, he had done it just before he had knocked out Raven, his movements switching from one form to the next so smoothly it was almost seamless. The noise caused her to gasp: indeed, it was instinctual. And planned, as she inhaled the gas that had issued into her face, and her vision immediately blurred and faded as she passed out, her Starbolts fading as she feel to the ground.

Anarky, surrounded by the fallen Titans, turned to Robin. Robin, not able to help himself, arched an eyebrow. Strangely, he wasn't mad.

"I heard you'd been practicing. Come a long way since that incident with Scarecrow and Azrael." Robin said.

"This is not improvement via training, Robin. This is what I can give to the world. The abilities the parasites brutalize out of us with their lies and indoctrination. Removed from them, I have become fully aware of what I am capable of. And you can see the results." Anarky said. "Now, do you want to join me by my side, or with your fellows on the ground?"

"I think you know the answer to that." Robin said, as he snapped out his staff.

"Sadly." Anarky replied.

Robin took two quick steps and swung out his staff, Anarky blocking it. As expected, as it was a ruse, as Robin twisted to the side and snapped his foot out, slamming it into the side of Anarky's head. The robed teenager stumbled, and Robin twirled and aimed a roundhouse slash at Anarky's head. But he ducked, the staff knocking his hat off, and thrust a leg into Robin's chest, and then followed it up with a spin kick to Robin's shoulder. Robin took the blows and leapt back, tossing a Birdarang.

Anarky knocked it out of the air with his cane. The weapon slammed into the ground, nearly hitting Raven. Anarky saw this, and turned away to check if Raven was all right. He found no wounds, and turned back to Robin.

"I suggest we take this elsewhere."

"Oh no you don't! I'm not giving you a chance to get away! I'll finish this right now!" Robin said, leaping at Anarky.

"If that is your desire, then I will emulate your intent." Anarky said, and pressed a button on his cane.

And suddenly there were seven Anarky's, leaping and jumping all over the place. Holograms.

Robin instinctively tried to adjust to all the new movement and messed up, his leap aborted as he hit the ground. But he rolled and got up. He swung a karate chop at the nearest Anarky, but his hand went through the image. He didn't stop moving, kicking at another Anarky and then throwing metal discs at two others. All proved to be false, but that only left…

The jolt slammed into him from his neck, as Anarky zapped him from the side with his taser. His innate bioelectricity went haywire, causing his muscles to malfunction and go limp. Robin fell to the ground, unable to move as his brain tried to re-wire his body.

"Again, I apologize." Anarky said.

He heard a slight noise, and turned to see Cyborg was getting up. His eyes, blank and white behind his golden mask, narrowed a bit. He couldn't keep wasting time here. But if he just left, the Titans would go hunting for him, and they could interfere with his plan. What he needed was another distraction; one with a tad bit more sustenance…

His eyes turned to Raven, who was still thoroughly knocked out. So be it. He didn't like it, but it had to be done.

Robin was almost together himself when Anarky strolled over and scooped Raven up.

"Hey! Wait!" Robin said.

"I wish I didn't have to do this Robin, but your delusion is deep. But don't worry. Soon the smoke and mirrors will vanish, and you will see the truth. And a better world." Anarky said.

And he threw another orb on the ground. It exploded, and the room quickly filled with thick smoke. By the time it cleared, Raven and Anarky were gone.

"DAMN IT!" Robin cursed as he scanned the room, expecting to find no sign of Anarky. He was right: he had left nothing behind except a memory.

"Aw man…dude…watch it next time…" Beast Boy muttered as he staggered over to Robin, holding his head.

"Sorry man. I'll make it up to you later. Right now we have to find Raven." Cyborg replied.

"Wha? Raven's gone?" Beast Boy said.

"Anarky took her." Robin said grimly.

"But…why?" Beast Boy said, suddenly looking worried.

"I don't know. Kidnapping isn't really his thing, but he must have a plan. But we can't ponder it here…" Robin said, as he headed over to Starfire. Some smelling salts quickly woke her up.

"What did he take anyway?" Cyborg asked.

"That's what I'm going to find out. Then we head back to the Tower, we're going to need our computer." Robin said.

"Robin, where is Beast Boy?" Starfire asked.

"He's right over…" Cyborg said, looking over, and then realized Starfire was accurate: Beast Boy had also disappeared. "Yikes. Gar?"

"Beast Boy, come in!" Robin said, pulling out his communicator. "Where are you?"

Silence, and then a brief answer.

"Busy. Call later." Beast Boy said, and then his voice cut out.

"What is he doing?" Cyborg said.

"I guess something he finds important. Come on guys, time's a wasting." Robin said.

*************

Beast Boy was actually on the roof of the company. In his hand was clutched the small piece of Raven's cloak that Robin's Birdarang had snipped off when Anarky had deflected it.

Beast Boy laid it down and turned into a bloodhound, sniffing it. It wasn't much of a scent, but it was better then nothing.

For a moment, Gar wondered if he should give Noel a call. Then he decided against it. He needed to move, needed to find Raven…though his motivation ultimately was not the purest. But it was pure enough: the ulterior remained just that, ulterior.

Beast Boy flew down to the ground and began sniffing around down there, as a bloodhound and then a pig. The pig's nose was the winner, catching a faint scent. Beast Boy followed after it.

**************

"So who is this boy anyway, this Anarky? What did he speak of in making the world a better place? Is he related to the Lord?" Starfire asked as Robin typed on the computer.

"Not as far as I know, though from what I DO know, they do sound similar." Robin answered.

"How much do you know then?" Cyborg asked.

"Not as much as I would like. I sent a request for information to Oracle, until it arrives…well, may as well start at the beginning." Robin said. "His name's Lonnie Machin, and he was just a normal kid until he got a pen pal named Xuasus. I don't know where Xuasus lived, exactly, but it was a bad place. Eventually, Xuasus just disappeared, after sending Lonnie several letters of the terrible poverty and repression he suffered. Lonnie wanted to help, but his father apparently told him he couldn't. 'Things were different there', I believe he said."

"I'm guessing Lonnie didn't think that." Cyborg said.

"Indeed. Lonnie tried to figure out why he couldn't help his pen pal. In the process, he did a huge amount of research about war, and in his mind, he started seeing that wars always seemed to get started by a small group of men who made a huge amount of money off the suffering of others. He was still pretty young, and I guess to his childish eyes he saw this as a great injustice that had to be stopped. And then he found a very obscure book called _Universe…_and that gave him an epiphany in the same vein."

"Which was?"

"Well, you heard him. Anarky believes he's seen through "the great lie" that underpins all Earthly civalizations, which, according to him, is that mankind is a brutish, warlike creature that needs to be constantly controlled and dominated by a ruling elite for its own good. It's that last part that sticks in Anarky's craw: he thinks these elites have been in power for centuries because they've put up all these control systems that brainwash people and turn them into zombies, all while claiming that this is for the best, because if society didn't have its leaders, it would degenerate into chaos."

"But wouldn't it?" Starfire suggested.

"It might Kory, but that's the thing about beliefs. You look at anyone's beliefs long enough and parts of it will start making sense. But that doesn't mean they believe the absolute truth and you are believing a lie. It could very well turn around and be the opposite, or something totally different. So maybe, yes, if we took away the governments and religions society would destroy itself, but then again, that may just be what they WANT you to think. Otherwise, they wouldn't have jobs, would they?"

"But…we live in…!" Cyborg began.

"A democracy? Lonnie would just say that's a lie as well. Who knows the system better then politicians? They certainly won't let anyone who actually has good intentions in."

"But…is the alternative really that great? He calls himself ANARCHY, for crying out loud. Does he really want all the terrible things that come with that?"

"Technically, he spells it A-N-A-R-K-Y, Vic, and technically, anarchy does not mean chaos and destruction. Not originally, anyway. Anarchy, by its technical and original definition, just means taking responsibility for your own actions, ruling yourself and just yourself. But words change meaning. Gay used to mean happy and a fag used to be a cigarette, but people won't think that now. But Lonnie fully believes in the original meaning of the word, AND in the belief that the world is ruled by a greedy elite who leech their undeserved fortune off the common man and cause so many to suffer and die. Which is what makes what he did so puzzling…why would he kidnap Raven?"

"Will he hurt her?" Starfire asked.

"I severely doubt it. Lonnie believes, in above all else, in never using initiatory force, and never cheating. No force, no fraud, as he says. I suppose the stress of his "great mission" could be causing him to break down and break his own beliefs, it wouldn't be the first time that happened to a man…but I don't think so. Like I said, he thinks we're tools of these so-called evil elites. He doesn't want to fight us, but he doesn't want us to "unknowingly" interfere in his mission…so I'm guessing Raven is a distraction. What we need to do is trace him back to his base. His REAL base, I'm sure he has a whole bunch of misdirections and dead ends to protect himself while he does whatever he's planning. Lonnie is a genius with computers."

"He fights pretty damn hard for a computer geek."

"Lonnie has prepared himself for his life with an intensity that rivals Batman, Vic. Not just physically as well. He's used virtual reality technology on his head to try and mine the full potential of his brain. It worked. His, um, what was it called…biofeedback learning enhancer has caused the two hemispheres of his brain to fuse together."

"That's good?" Cyborg asked.

"If you think the ability to think ten times faster then normal is. Lonnie can integrate facts and data at a much higher rate then a normal man. I suspect that's why he was able to beat us so easily." Robin said. He wished he'd known that beforehand, instead of a few minutes ago from an Oracle-sent printout. It would have been useful.

"So he mutated himself?"

"No, I wouldn't say so. It's possible it can happen naturally…though the way history goes, I'd say the last time it happened that way was…Leonardo Da Vinci. Though I doubt he put on a costume and tried to 'save' the world."

"This is all very interesting, but we still don't know why he wants Raven or where she is." Starfire said.

"I'm working on the latter, Star. Even with his abilities, Lonnie probably left a trace or two while he was doing his hacking. The trick is following it back. If I can do it, I think we'll find Raven…and hopefully, Anarky. I think Beast Boy was helping in his own way. Hopefully he can get something too."

"You are SURE Anarky will not hurt Raven?"

"Almost certainly. But you never know Star. Theories are much like beliefs: there's no guarantee they mesh with the truth."

**************

Raven opened her eyes and saw it.

She couldn't make it out at first, as her body was slow in fully "restarting" itself. As her vision cleared, she noted that she was sitting in a chair, and she was tied to it. And strangely, she was comfortable.

Once her eyes were completely clear, she finally saw what it was. It almost looked like a tombstone, made of polished metal. Then she saw the writing on it, and realized it was a monument. She leaned forward a bit to try and read the print.

12 MILLION DEAD-NATIVE AMERICANS

Raven blinked, and then read on.

22 MILLION DEAD-SPANISH CONQUEST OF AMERICAS

10 MILLION DEAD-WORLD WAR I

20 MILLION DEAD-HITLER IN EUROPE

20 MILLION DEAD-MAO IN CHINA

And on and on it went. There were dozens of entries, possibly hundreds.

"Doesn't really match up to the reality, does it?"

Raven turned her head as Anarky turned around from the computer he was typing at. He had removed his hat and mask. Underneath was a disquietingly normal looking teenage boy, with long red hair and green eyes. He stood and walked over to the monument.

"Stalin was a monster, but he spoke the truth. 'One death is a tragedy. A million deaths are a statistic.' Makes one wonder just what one would consider this…" Anarky said, turning away. Raven couldn't see his face, and hence could not see the anger that washed over it.

"And all so POINTLESS! What did they die for? For ideals! For politics! For religion! Because someone made them believe that their country meant more then they did, that ideas matter more then LIFE. Such terrible, destructive LIES…so many innocent dead…"

And like a switch, the anger was gone, as Anarky turned back to Raven.

"I'm sorry for this situation. Would you like some water?"

Raven's eyes arched at the sudden switch, and she shook her head.

"Ok then." Anarky said, and started back to his computer. Raven tried to turn her head, but beside the monument and the chair where Anarky worked, the room was shrouded in shadow.

"Oh yes. I would not recommend you try and use your powers. The chair is set up so that it will read the unique vibration of your voice should you try and cast a spell, as well as your brain if you attempt to use your talents, and you will be neutralized before you can even start anything. Sorry I had to resort to such methods, but I know that unless I did, you would try and stop me."

"Why…" Raven said.

"Relax. I need you for a little more misdirection. The system is thoroughly enmeshed in you and your companions, and under that they would destroy the very one who would save them. I had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but your leader, Robin, has great talent, and figured me out, as I predicted he might. He will do well when the world is a better place."

"But…you…"

"Are doing a bad thing? That's not true. That's THEM again, Raven. Yes, I know your name. And considering your unique birth and life, the fact that you believe them as well shows how corrupting they are. But that will end soon, Raven. The world will be delivered."

"What are you talking about?"

"The TRUTH, Raven." Anarky said, and much like her still searching for her companions, Raven heard an echo of a foe vanquished on the Sahara sands. Anarky turned around and got up, looking at Raven.

"Maybe you didn't know it, but humans born under "normal" circumstances, and that is not an insult, I'd catagorize your birth under "extraordinary", all did once. The world shone with golden hope. And then THEY got to work on you, on us. The politicians, the priests, the philosophers, THE PARASITES!" Anarky said. "Think. Really, block out all the external distractions and THINK. This is politics: Do what we say or we'll punish you. This is religion: suffer misery now so you can be happy after death. This is philosophy: The universe came from nothing, and will one day return to it. Do any of these doctrines stand up to rational analysis?"

"Perhaps no more so then a half demon sorceress tied to a chair." Raven replied. She expected anger for her observation, instead Anarky just looked amused.

"True. Sometimes even things exist despite having no objective reality. But while beings like you may be up in the air, the truth of this world isn't, Raven. This isn't the way it should be."

"And why is that?"

"Why? Because they LIED to us, Raven. They tell us the evolution of human consciousness was a long, slow affair that began 2 million years ago that is still doing on today. But it didn't, AND IT'S NOT. Until almost 1,000 BC, almost all human beings lived UNCONSCIOUS lives. They may have built cities, traded, even developed language and hieroglyphics, but they were little more then highly intelligent animals, guided by strong impressions, or "voices" in the right hemisphere of the brain. Instinct, basically. They weren't deceitful, they knew no guilt, and they weren't responsible for their actions. Much like animals untouched by man are. But it couldn't stay this way forever. Societies became increasingly more complex, and the system began to break down. To survive, consciousness was INVENTED. A survival tool, and nothing more. But with it, mankind no longer had to be guided by biologically programmed impressions. He could decide what to do for himself. Look at history. Look at all the brilliance that rose out of this period, from Confucius in China to Socrates in Greece. But in a few hundred years THEY came along, a greedy elite that choked out that flowering. For all it brings us, it's HARD to think, Raven. It requires EFFORT. Mankind has always been a creature that tends to take the easier path, and it missed the easy life it's lost 'voices' brought it. And in that gap arose them, the politicians, priests, and philosophers, to 'aid' their fellow man by filling it, supposedly for the good of the masses, but really only for their own desires. And you have seen what they have wrought on the common man." Anarky said, indicating his monument.

"We shouldn't have listened to them. We should have focussed on our own selves. For while we had consciousness now, it was tainted by mysticism, the desire to blindly assign things and live our lives by them rather then think them through and see them for what they are. And the elites took advantage of that. They set it up so that this was all we knew, that it was all we could be, that this was the way it would always be. Tools of them to be used and cast aside, while in truth we all have the potential to walk like a GOD."

"My god…" Raven said. "You're just like him."

"Who?" Anarky said, confused.

"The Lord of the Night. I could almost swear you…"

"I AM NOTHING LIKE THAT LUNATIC!" Anarky suddenly yelled. "He wanted to kill the human race because he was unable to accept its flaws! I want to SAVE them, show them how to get PAST their flaws, to bring their brains away from mysticism and to their highest potential. Unlike the Lord, it will not be a world built on blood and ruin but on building, change, and CONTENTMENT. Didn't you ever read Aristotle? He spoke of all this eons ago! But they made sure you never heard it. They've always won, Raven. And the common man has always lost. UNTIL NOW."

Anarky turned and went back to his computer.

"For too long, the parasites have hid amongst us, leeching on the common man. For too long, their systems have controlled and brainwashed us, systems that were once untouchable. But what made the system so absolute is about to prove its undoing, Raven. It changed with the times, and that has made it vulnerable. Its wheels are exposed. And once I am done, it will all come down. And with it will come the lies. People will finally see the truth. And all the tyrants will die off, scorned and mocked by their former victims. I have worked as hard as I can to hasten the birth of this new world, our rightful world, and now I finally can."

Anarky finished typing and pressed one final key, and then a nearby monitor started beeping.

"43 seconds early. Not bad at all." Anarky said. "Well Raven, we must part now. Once again, I am sorry I had to do this, but unless I do, you'll blindly follow their orders like you always do. Let us hope that when it is done, and the scales have fallen from your eyes, you will not regret your actions too much. Even with your birthright, you're only human."

Anarky walked over and stood next to Raven's side. She craned her neck to try and make out what he was doing, but her restraints prevented her from seeing nothing clearly. Within four seconds, he was done.

"And when it's all over…" Anarky said, as he produced his mask and put it on, and then adjusted his hat on top of it. "You'll see how great that is."

And then he was done.

Ten seconds later, the computer began beeping.

*************

"This makes no sense at all!" Cyborg said, as he looked over some printouts. "Considering what you told us, why would Anarky steal that kind of chip?"

"When I figure that out, Vic, I'll tell you. But he must have a reason. Lonnie is BIG on rationality and logic." Robin said. He was still hunting through the vast fields of cyberspace to try and trace Anarky back, while at the same time trying to figure out what Anarky was going to do with his chip.

Specifically, it was the SH-IL E24 chip. One would expect it to have been a part of a weapons system or something, but the chip was actually the latest in a series that aided with, of all things, data storage. And Lonnie always had the best equipment whenever he set something up. He surely would have thought of another way to get space if he needed it then the convoluted plan he had set up. So why…

Robin's belt began beeping, and he took one hand off the computer to answer it.

"Beast Boy?"

"You bet! Guys, I found Raven! She's holed up in an old toy factory."

"You did? How?" Robin said, as Starfire and Cyborg looked up.

"Followed her scent."

"Is Anarky around?"

"I didn't see him."

"Ok Gar, listen…" Robin began, and then the communicator suddenly cut out. 

"Beast Boy! Beast Boy! Answer! Damn, something's wrong! Vic, Kory, trace his communicator! Find him! I'm going to stay here and try and trace Anarky. He must have left Raven then to distract us."

"With what?" Cyborg asked, and then Robin realized what Beast Boy may very well be walking into. He turned on his communicator and tried to raise him again.

"Beast Boy, come on! Please! There's probably a trap!"

**************

"Robin? Robin? Hello?" Beast Boy said into his communicator. All he got was static. "Son of a shoopuf!"

Beast Boy put the communicator away. He had glimpsed Raven through a window, and from what he had seen, she was tied up. This was his chance! He could save the day! And maybe…nah, that wouldn't happen, but he was sure she'd appreciate it.

Turning into a mouse, Beast Boy snuck into the warehouse.

Now, despite the way he acted, Gar Logan was not an idiot. He knew that, more likely then not, Raven was not just tied up to the chair. Once he was in the warehouse, he began looking around carefully, changing into a variety of creature with great eyes, night vision, and other senses.

And he found nothing. No barely-there trip wires. No ozone scent to indicate hidden lasers. No cameras. Nothing, except a computer workstation and the chair Raven was tied to.

Satisfied, Beast Boy dropped down in front of Raven, who had been looking at the wall. She started and looked at him as he became human again and waved.

"Hiya! Miss me!" he said, grinning.

"Beast Boy?" Raven said.

And then the alarm went off.

"WHAT? AH! WHAT DID I STEP ON! AH! YIKES!" Beast Boy yelped as he danced around. The lights suddenly flicked on as the floor around Raven slid apart, sliding several new devices up next to her.

"Devices armed." A computer voice said.

"Ah nosenuggets." Beast  Boy replied.

"Scanning system online." The voice said, and then on the nearby discarded computer, the masked face of Anarky popped up.

"Good day. If you are seeing this, you have triggered my defence. My systems have locked onto you and anyone else who may have accompanied you, and are scanning a twenty foot square area around Raven. If you attempt to leave, the device will detonate. If anyone joins you in the area, the device will detonate. Any attempt to disrupt the power will detonate the device as well. Oh yes, and in 30 minutes, the device will detonate anyway. I hope Robin is there, he might be able to disarm it. Might." Anarky said.

And in the back of her head, Raven realized that Beast Boy hadn't set the device off. She had. It hadn't been him stepping or tripping on something. The device had been programmed to arm…when she had spoken one of her teammates' names.

And on the computer screen, Anarky's face disappeared, to be replaced by a clock that said 30:00.

Not for long.

"What do I do! What do I do!" Beast Boy said, panicking.

"Gar, you have to try and disarm the device!" Raven said.

"But I don't know anything about bombs!" Beast Boy said.

"Better learn quick." Raven said tersely, as the countdown filled her eyes.

29:47…

29:46…

29:45…

To Be Continued


	4. Anarky: The Economics of the Madhouse

Chapter 3: The Economics of The Madhouse

Hackers were misunderstood.

Or at least that was what Robin was reflecting on as he worked feverishly at the Teen Titans' main computer, trying to backtrace Anarky. But as good as Tim was, he knew Lonnie Machin was worlds better.

Robin was good, but in hacker speak, Lonnie Machin was grade-A, a _wizard_.

And as mentioned, they were misunderstood. Everyone thought of hackers as computer geeks breaking into computer systems. That was erroneous.  TRUE hackers didn't damage anything. Their name came from the programs they wrote and designed, ones they "hacked together" to denote how the programs originally known as hacks were written quickly to serve a limited purpose. The worst thing a true hacker might do is take a program that computer people wished to sell and re-write as freeware, making it available to people at no charge.

People who broke into systems, for the sake of money or challenge or just boredom were known as _crackers_, for the "cracking the system" they did. That word was only used by people very familiar with computers though: to the average person, they used the word they had heard: hacker, lumping all of the com G's in one group.

Much like they thought that anarchy meant chaos and destruction, Robin mused, as he finished writing what was known as a _kludge_, a program written hastily in order to quickly accomplish a certain purpose.

Robin's purpose was to find Anarky's true lair. He hadn't heard anything back from Beast Boy or Raven, nor Cyborg and Starfire (and they should be almost there by now), but he assumed that while the place had good equipment, the heart of Anarky's plan lay elsewhere.

The kludge was to find that location. This was made a bit easier by the fact that whatever Anarky was planning was certainly very big. The bigger something is, the more loose ends are left dangling.

And considering what Anarky wanted, and the scope of the plans he had shown in the past, it had to be big indeed. That would have telltale marks. All Robin had to do was find them, out in the vast fields of cyberspace, the Blue Nowhere.

A daunting task, but one Robin believed he could do, and more importantly, KNEW he had to. If Anarky succeeded, it might very well lead to the birth of a better world…but much like mothers, people tend to forget how terrible the birth process actually is. Applying that metaphor to society meant the potential for terrible death and destruction. Robin would not allow that to happen for the desired goal equivalent of vaporware: something that MIGHT be real and might be better but also might just not exist at all.

The kludge was sent out. Robin backed it up by a technique known as _phishing_, which meant to hunt the Internet for information. Which Robin did, looking for the indicative marks that could lead him to Lonnie, hoping that Anarky was too busy with his plan and satisfied with whatever dead ends and traps he had set to keep too close an eye on anyone trying to trace him.

Sweat beaded Robin's brow. He hoped the others were having a better time.

*******************************

"Cut the blue wire! The BLUE ONE!" Cyborg yelled.

"THEY'RE ALL BLUE!" Beast Boy yelled back.

"Shit. How many are there?"

"Uh…1, 3, 7…sixteen!"

"FUCK!"

"I didn't need to hear that!" Beast Boy called back.

Beast Boy had been in battles against foes that could vaporize him into nothingness, he had been in battles with lunatics who wanted nothing more then to use his guts as tube socks, he had been in situations where any mistake made would result in one's air running out or one's blood boiling or one's brain being transmuted into peach flavored Jello.

And those had all been bad, but the past seventeen minutes had held their own insidious kind of hell, as Beast Boy worked to try and save the life of Raven. He had to. She couldn't leave the chair without causing the bomb to blow, and the chair was rigged so that her powers were blocked. And Anarky's damn scanners would keep anyone from arriving to help Beast Boy, and him from leaving to get help.

And worst of all, Beast Boy knew, deep down, that this was pretty much hopeless. Beast Boy didn't even known how to program a VCR, much less disable a bomb, ESPECIALLY considering how good Anarky was with machines.     

But he didn't care. He didn't even give it a second thought. Who cared about ability? He had to do this.

As one final cruel twist, Anarky had left nothing in the scanned area that could be used as a tool. And unlike Robin, Beast Boy didn't have a utility belt of tools he carried around. He was stuck with his bare hands.

Oh wait, fate apparently had decided it wasn't being nasty enough. The final thing? Beast Boy had no idea where to begin.

Hence, he had wasted the first ten minutes, using several monkey species to unscrew various parts of the machine to see if anything leapt out at him.

No dice. Everything looked the same. And Beast Boy feared touching anything, lest it hasten the detonation or even cause it outright.

Which had almost happened anyway. Starfire and Cyborg had arrived as the timer reached the 17:00 mark, and Starfire had immediately tried to fly to Raven, her emotions making her forget there was a trap. If Cyborg hadn't shot out a grappling hook and grabbed her, Beast Boy was pretty sure he'd be dead right about now.

But he wasn't. One small bit of luck, he supposed.

So now here he was. Cyborg, being a machine, knew more about them then Beast Boy had. Standing at the edge of the perimeter (thank god for his scanners being able to pinpoint something like that), he had asked Beast Boy to describe what he had uncovered. Beast Boy had done so, and they had finally led to the device that was to the left of Raven's, slightly behind her. Cyborg had determined that the main trigger of the bomb lay in there. Beast Boy had managed to open the machine up, and he was now staring at the sixteen blue wires he had mentioned before.

13:39…

13:38…

"All right…don't panic Gar." Cyborg said. 

Beast Boy didn't. He had passed panic a while ago. His furry face was damp with sweat, and he supposed he smelled terrible. But that was a small concern.

"Ok, what else is there? Any other wires?"

"No…some computer chips…and a bunch of gold…stuff. I can't really make it out." Beast Boy said.

"Ok. Ok, I think we can do this!" Cyborg said. "Listen carefully. I want you to strip the cover off the second, forth, and ninth wires from the LEFT. Hear me? From the LEFT."

"Ok, ok…" Beast Boy said, as he pulled out the second wire and turned into a mouse.

"Don't bite all the way through! Just the covering!"

"Sure. No pressure…" Beast Boy said, as he began to nibble.

********************************

Good news and bad.

The good was that Robin had finally gotten a set amount of information he could search.

The bad news was, it was very large.

His efforts had rewarded Robin with a long list of company names. Unless he was COMPLETELY off-base (and even Anarky wasn't THAT good), behind one of those company names hid Anarky's base of operations.

The problem was, Robin had no idea which one. There were nearly seventy names on the list. Checking them all out with his trace programs and kludge would take DAYS, and Robin had a feeling that Anarky wasn't going to wait that long. 

So it was up to him to figure out which name Anarky was hiding behind.

And he wasn't making it obvious. In the past, when Anarky had formed dummy companies, he had used names like the Anarkist Foundation and Anarco. Not this time. Robin had started his quest with the three companies with A names, but they had revealed nothing.

Jericho Corp.

Yerveryer Limited.

Koth Records.

Sku Inc.

Cherry Falls Incorporated.

Mclene, Dryce, and Hatch.

Which one was Lonnie Machin's smokescreen? Robin was certain that some of these companies didn't even exist: dead ends for him to possibly run into. And others might have existed…just not in Jump City.

MBI Formating Inc

Chiatob Inc.

Gold-Lust Diggers Limited.

48000S Inc.

Candiacana Corp.

Microsoft.

Well, Robin mused with some much needed humour, he could eliminate THAT one.

But that still left dozens.

And time was running out.

****************************************

Robin thought HE was running low on time. He didn't know anything.

"Ok, done!" Beast Boy said. He had managed to strip the coating off the wires and had wrapped the second and thirteenth wire's exposed sections around the forth's ones. "Now what?"

10:22…

10:21…

10:20…

"Ok…if I've done the calculations right…pull out the tenth wire! The three interlinked wires will create a feedback loop that will hopefully make the computer think the timer has stopped, and they won't trigger the bomb!"

"Ok…here goes…" Beast Boy said, and yanked out the wire.

For one brief pregnant second, the timer flickered.

Then it kept going.

"FUCK!" Cyborg cursed. "Damn, it's even more complicated then I thought!"

"I hope you didn't think it was very complicated." Beast Boy said.

9:57…

9:56…

"Ok Gar, don't lose hope! Ok…think Vic think…"

Raven didn't know how she was keeping it together. She had calmed herself using meditation, of course, but even that could only work so much. Raven had stared death in the face before, but on this occasion, it was taking its sweet time. She knew that (god forbid) if the bomb did go off, she wouldn't have time to feel pain. But the anticipation, as usual, was a million times worse then the actual event.

But outwardly, she was calm. The same could not be said for Starfire, who was walking back and forth, biting her nails. Tamaran society had little, if any, stress sources like this, and she wasn't coping well.

"Ok Gar, I think I have it! Strip the cover off the end of the tenth wire, and then pull out the SEVENTH wire and wrap the two together. Then touch them to the original bundle. Hopefully that will cause the effect I theorized."

"Ok, ok…" Beast Boy said as he carefully stripped the coating off the tenth wire. Once that was done, he yanked the seventh wire out and did likewise.

8:49…

8:48…

"Ok...here goes…" Beast Boy said, and carefully touched the interlinked wires with the bundle.

The timer flashed.

It paused…

And then, as Beast Boy's mouth opened wide with horror, IT SPED UP.

8:27…

8:11…

7:58…

Starfire screamed, and Cyborg was yelling something, but Gar Logan couldn't make it out as he frantically tried to yank the wires back…

Only to find the flash that had sped up the timer had fused the wires together.

*****************************************

Robin's head throbbed.

He refused to give up, but he was worried that what he was doing was the equivalent of ramming your head into a brick wall: your head would give long before the wall did. For all his efforts, he couldn't find the door. It wasn't a needle in a haystack, but it was definitely finding the single red smartie in a bucket of non-red ones.

He'd tried letters from Lonnie's name, patterns that may have been formed from philosophers, and even tried the Microsoft one in case it was a ruse that Lonnie had hoped no one would ever expect.

Nothing, nada, nien, goose egg.

Robin leaned back in his chair and wiped his forehead with a nearby rag. And though he tried to fight it, self-doubt began to claw at him. He was the leader, and he knew computers. He should have been able to handle this. He should have kept Anarky from taking Raven in the first place. He should have contacted Oracle or Batman. Heck, maybe he should have gotten out of the other side of the bed this morning.

But he had done none of these things, as he closed his eyes, leaned back more, and brought the palms of his hands to his sockets. And because of that, he and his team and the WORLD may very well be screwed.

Totally screwed…

And then something connected in his brain, as Robin opened his eyes. He leaned back over the computer and began typing. He came across the name that had caused his epiphany and did the hacker equivalent of attacking it with a baseball bat.

"Come on, come on, come on…" he muttered as his kludge sifted through the data, looking for that telltale sign…

One of these things is not like the other… 

And broke through.

Robin's eyes widened slightly as the computer called up the information. This was no company database. This was a VERY powerful supercomputer.

And Robin had an address to go with its location. Once you knew what you were looking for, and where, the telltale signs became very hard to hide.

Robin logged out and shut off his computer in case Anarky had discovered his trace and attempted to retaliate. He had the address. Now he had to move.

"Not bad Lonnie." Robin said as he ran from the room.

Lonnie's front had nothing to do with screws or hardware. It was a phonetic thing. The front had been the short-named Sku Inc.

For two reasons.

One, the word sounded like "skewed". Which is definitely how Anarky saw the world viewing itself: through a view skewed by the "parasites".

And also, the letters itself. U for _Universe_, the book that had driven Lonnie Machin to his quest. And SK, Scudder Klyce, the author of the book.

Clever, clever.

Which caused Robin to pause in his running.

Anarky was far from a dummy, indeed, his brain was possibly at the level of Batman's. Which would explain how he beaten them so easily in their first encounter. He had probably spent a few weeks studying them, learning their tactics and tricks. If Robin went to face him alone, he had a feeling he would lose.

No. He needed a surprise.

And thinking about what Anarky had probably done, he had a grand idea, as he turned and ran down a side hallway.

***************************************

Looking back, Beast Boy had no actual memory of the event, of where he actually removed the two sets of wires by biting them with his teeth until they had come apart, and then somehow untangling wires seven and ten and shoving them back into the slots they had come out of. By some miracle, whatever had broken down reconnected, stopping the timer's increased speed.

But not the timer itself, and now it was down to under two minutes.

"Ok Vic…please tell me you have another idea." Beast Boy said.

1:34…

1:33…

"Uh…well…geez…" Cyborg said. In truth he had totally mined the depths of his knowledge, and he was fresh out of ideas on how to stop the bomb. "Well, there might be one more chance! Maybe you've messed up the switches enough that another jolt could sever them! But…I have no idea which wire that might be! I can figure it…"

"No time." Beast Boy said. "You say one of these wires might disarm the bomb?"

"Yes!"

Beast Boy sighed, and then he took a deep breath.

"Eeney, meeny, miney, moe…"

"ARE YOU KIDDING!?!?!?" Cyborg yelled.

"All we have left!" Beast Boy said, as fresh sweat broke on his face.

1:11…

1:10…

1:09…

"Catch a tiger by the toe...if he hollers let him go…eeney…meeny…miney…moe."

Beast Boy closed his eyes, and then he grabbed wire 12 and yanked it out.

A brief pause.

Beast Boy opened his eyes.

The timer was still going.

The crushing feeling that came over Beast Boy was something no person should ever have to feel. It was the terrible hopeless inevitability of a pilot watching his plane heading towards a mountain, the machine no longer working due to some unforeseen mechanical error, knowing that he and all his passengers were going to die and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it, and yet still wishing he could do SOMETHING, even as the mountain filled his view.

"It didn't work." He said.

0:58…

0:57…

"Gar." Raven said. There was something in Raven's voice that made Beast Boy look away from his work and up to Raven.

"Go."

For a second, Gar was uncomprehending. Then he realized what Raven was saying.

"No! I won't."

"Gar…you did all you could. Run. Maybe you can escape the explosion."

"I won't leave you behind!"

"You're not. I'm telling you to go. I don't want you to die because of me…go."

0:46…

0:45…

"Raven…" Beast Boy said, his arms spread hopelessly.

"Gar…this is my gift to you. Don't waste your life. And tell Noel…I did this willingly. He will hurt, and he will rage, but ultimately he will understand. Now GO! NOW!"

"But…"

"GO!"

0:32…

0:31…

"Raven…oh god…I'm so sorry…so sorry…" Beast Boy said as he turned away and began trotting away, his body still numb and not yet able to work itself up to full speed. At the perimeter, Cyborg watched helplessly. If he could have cried, he would have, but he no longer had tear ducts.

Starfire did it for him though, as twin tears leaked from her eyes, and then her mood suddenly swung violently from sorrow to anger.

"ANARKY!" she screamed. "HOW DARE YOU YOU…what was…HYPOCRITE! YOU PREACH NO FORCE AND NO FRAUD, AND YET YOU COMMIT SUCH AN ACT OF BANAL EVIL! YOU ARE WORSE THEN THE LORD! HE AT LEAST DIDN'T LIE ABOUT HIS INTENTIONS! I HAVE NEVER USED THIS CURSE BEFORE, BUT I WILL WITH YOU! YOU ARE A…!"

"STAR!!!!!!!!!!" Beast Boy suddenly yelled. "What did you just say?"

"What? Anarky is a hypocrite! He lays a bomb and yet says he believes in…"

"No force, no fraud…" Beast Boy repeated.

0:24…

0:23…

And Beast Boy turned around and made a beeline back towards the chair Raven was tied to, much to the shock of everybody.

"Gar! I said run! NOW!" Raven yelled, as Beast Boy crouched down where he had been working for the past twenty minutes, his eyes squinting as he looked at the timer and then back at the wires…

"GAR! RUN! I TOLD YOU TO GO!"

"You go, I go." Beast Boy said.

0:16…

0:15…

_He claims that is what he believes._ Beast Boy thought. _But if he did, why did he lay this device? To do so would break one, but if that…it would break another! And if so how…why…_

The timer entered its last ten seconds.

To hell with it. No force…NO FRAUD! 

And Beast Boy reached down and yanked all the wires out.

With a brief hum, the timer flickered, and then stopped at nine seconds.

Beast Boy looked at the glowing number.

0:09…

And then it disappeared. Anarky's masked face replaced it.

"Well done." He said, and then it was gone. A second later, Raven's restraints popped open.

Beast Boy finally let the breath he had been holding out, and then Starfire was over by their side, crushing Raven in a death grip, and then doing the same to Beast Boy, babbling how glad she was that they were alive and not dead.

"AIR KORY! AIR!"  
"Oh, sorry!"

"Beast Boy…what in the hell…ah, who cares! MY MAN!" Cyborg said, slapping Beast Boy across the back. "You just cemented the top spot in my cool list for months."

"Oh? I wasn't there already?" Beast Boy said, as his body finally relaxed from the terrible stress he had been under.

"Gar, I do not understand…what happened?" Starfire said, looking at the computers.

"You did Kory." Beast Boy said. "Or what you said. Anarky preached a belief of "No force, no fraud." In that order. That was what struck me. In the end, I gambled on the fact that he might be willing to use fraud, just a little…as long as there was no force at all. And if there was no force, that meant there was no bomb."

"He never wanted to hurt me. He wanted to distract us away from his plan." Raven said.

"Which he is most likely carrying out now! We must contact Robin and stop him!" Starfire said.

"Geez. A bomb that isn't there, by a guy who shouldn't be putting anything like that there in the first place. What kind of business is that?" Cyborg asked, no one in particular.

"The economics of the madhouse." Raven answered.

And the Titans left the warehouse, already forgetting what had happened there, as teenagers are wont to do. That was the past. It was tinged by Anarky, but it was the past nonetheless.

But if they didn't move, the future might soon be his to dictate.

*************************

A small part of Anarky's computer beeped. He glanced over to it, nodded in satisfaction, and went back to work. So the Titans had figured out his trick. Good for them. He hadn't liked making them think their friend's life was in danger, but he had to keep them out of his way lest the parasites use them as puppets to derail the future. But they had succeeded in figuring it out, and even if they had, nothing would have happened when the timer hit zero. That was the important thing. Tricked they had been, but not hurt. Except for maybe some stress, but that was the stock in trade of their profession.

But in seven minutes, that might drastically change. Because that was when the elite's empire, for so long untouchable, would suffer a blow it would not be able to recover from.

The world would soon be his to give, back to the people who deserved it. They had slaved long enough.

Much like the Titans had slaved over his device, he supposed.

And then something occurred to Anarky. He quickly did the math in his head.

Nine seconds. The device had been stopped with only nine seconds remaining. But surely that couldn't be the case. Robin surely would have…

Unless…

The door behind Anarky suddenly exploded off its hinges, bringing a shaft of light into the dark room. Anarky, to his credit, only jerked a bit in reaction.

"Hello Robin." He said.

"Good day to you as well Lonnie. Though I suspect it won't be in a bit." Robin said, staying in the doorway, the light shining behind him and rendering him a silhouette.

"Sending your allies after Raven while you stayed behind to track me. Surely you understood the risk in that?" Anarky said, standing up, keying in one last command as he did so.

"It paid off, didn't it? Hell, Lady Luck even let me track you without you realizing it." Robin said.

Anarky's fingers clenched a bit around his cane.

"I don't suppose you've come to see the truth of my statements."

"No. Sorry Lonnie. It just ain't me." Robin said. Anarky sighed.

"So be it. I detest using force Robin, but the gift is within my grasp. No one is stopping me from giving it back. Not even you, Robin."

"Not Robin."

And Robin stepped forward, allowing himself to be seen.

His normal colorful costume was gone. Instead, Robin had on a skintight BLACK bodysuit, with a small red marking on the chest. The same red marking that was adorned on the skull-faced mask Robin had pulled out and slipped on.

"RED-X."

To Be Concluded!


	5. Anarky: Fanfare for The Common Man

Chapter 4: Fanfare For The Common Man

***********************

"Vox populi, vox del."

"The voice of the people is the voice of God."

***********************

"Nice look Robin." Anarky said, as he gazed at Robin's new garb.

"The essence of anarchy is constant surprise, right?" Robin (though dressed as Red-X) replied, as he slowly began to walk to the left.  Anarky stood his ground.

"Yes. Spontaneity. Lao-Tse knew…a lot of Chinese people did, it seemed…it makes one wonder if the cradle of life really was in Africa…" Anarky said. "It's a pity you understand the base message of the creed, yet fail to see its heart."

"Lonnie, let's stop this. You aren't going to convert me."

"Oh really? You speak wise words, and then deny what you just said? How fitting. Like people. Wise once upon a time, and then ignorant as a pig two thousand years later."

"Hey, the dinosaurs are dead, but they don't know it yet." Robin said. His plan wasn't working: Anarky was still standing in front of the computer.

"Yes…they need someone like myself to bring home the news." Anarky said. "You know Robin, I still haven't figured you. Running dog lackey of the capitalist conspiracy? Victim of socio-economic forces beyond your control? Whatever the case…"

And then Anarky moved, his figure a red blur, as he hurled something at Robin. Robin tried to leap out of the way, but Anarky had read him too well and aimed his shot at where he was going. The gas bomb exploded, and Robin was enveloped in the fumes.

"Sleep it off." Anarky said.

A brief pause.

And then Robin leapt out of the gas, swinging his leg out. But he didn't hit anything, as Anarky flipped backwards away from the attack.

"Ah, a gas filter. Very nice."

"I'd say so." Robin said, clenching his fists. Anarky sighed.

"Do not think victory is represented in one move. Another Chinese phrase says that the journey is what matters, not the destination. But that can't be applied any more. We've slaved too long, been preyed upon too long. It has to be done. Tonight, the dark ages pass…I only wonder if their heroes will pass with them."

"Don't be worrying about ME!" Robin yelled, as he raised his hands. His specially designed gauntlets charged, loaded, and then fired twin red energy x's at Anarky. Anarky dodged to the side, the blasts ripping a hole in his cape. Anarky continued his maneuvers with a roll, zipping in to the side of Robin and swinging out with his cane.

Robin blocked it with his arm, but it was a feint, as Anarky twirled and slammed his leg across Robin's face. Robin stumbled back, and barely avoided a follow-up blast of electricity.

"Not bad Robin. Your new outfit seemed well equipped. Then again, I assume that's why you're wearing it. To try and surprise me like I surprised you. Unfortunately…it doesn't seem to be working."

Robin snapped up his arms.

"Speak for yourself."

Two more X's. Anarky dodged again, and finally all the cloth that composed his outfit proved his undoing, as the glue projectiles hit the cape and exploded, pinning Anarky in place as the gunk enveloped part of the cloak and fell to the ground, sticking there. Anarky grunted, and then swung out his cane as a Birdarang flew through the air. Anarky deflected it…only to take the full brunt of Robin's leaping spin kick. Part of Anarky's cloak tore off as he flew across the room, hitting the wall.

"You know, you preach no force and no fraud, yet you seem to be awfully efficient in battle. Up to a point anyway." Robin said.

"You think this is natural?" Anarky growled. "Humans shouldn't have to do this! It's them again! They've hypnotized you and everyone else into thinking crime is natural, war is natural, all this pointless fighting is NATURAL, UNAVOIDABLE, EXPECTED! THEY'RE NOT! THEY'RE THE PRODUCTS OF THE ELITES AND THEIR ALL CONSUMING GREED!"

"And you made all this with a few pennies?" Robin said, indicating the supercomputer.

"Money is just a tool. The elites are the ones who make it the root of all evil. But in four minutes, that root is going to be pulled out and burned."

"Gee, thanks for reminding me." Robin said, as he turned toward the computer, holding out his right arm.

Only to have an arrow slam into it. He recoiled as his gauntlet sparked. The arrow's point had been filed down so that it hadn't gone through his armour and pierced his hand, but it hit with enough impact to short out the weapon system. The next second, Anarky was back in Robin's face, slamming his cane over his head. Robin fell to the ground, spun, and lashed out with a kick, but Anarky blocked it. Robin twirled up to his feet and punched, but Anarky dodged to the side, his swirling cloak obscuring his movements, and slammed his and locked his arm down and around his fist, twisting Robin in a judo throw. Robin flipped and countered, but Anarky countered THAT, somehow avoided tripping over all his excess costume material as he backflipped over Robin, locking one of Robin's arms behind him even as he slid his cane across Robin's throat with his other hand, grabbing it with his still free other hand so that he could maintain both the grip on Robin's arm and his cane.

"Very…nice…" Anarky said, as Robin struggled a bit. "But you're lacking what I have."

"Insanity?" Robin snarled.

"Don't be so asinine! You know I'm not crazy…in fact, if you want to argue schematics, I'd say you're the crazy one. So close to the truth…yet refusing to see it!"

"I think you may be the one seeing things that aren't there. What good will the SH-IL E24 chip do you? It's used for data storage! What good…is that going to do you?"

"You disappoint me Robin. Have you forgotten spontaneity? Change? I know exactly what I've done."

"I still say you're a loony."

"This is a pathetic attempt to get information from me Robin. I'm not some gibbering mad scientist."

"I think you're only lacking the first part of that equation? What good is a data storage chip going to do against the Elites? They've been in power for eons! People have believed them for eons! What good can you do…unless you become them?"

"That chip itself does me no good. It is change that does Robin! Change is their greatest fear, and it will be their undoing!"

"You're crazy."

"No Robin. They are. They believed it would always be this way. But not any more! You see Robin, they always had the advantage. Their external authority, their force-backed numbers! But their greatest tool Robin, was that they always had the money. The money to pay people to sell out their fellows, to indoctrinate and brainwash people, to control the masses by making them think this is the only way. But money has changed Robin. It used to exist only in physical form. Inked paper. Precious metals. Jewels and property. But with the dawn of the 21st century, it all changed Robin. It was revealed to be more convenient if money was converted into another form. Electronics signals. 0's and 1's. Incalculable amounts, reduced to a few gigs of data. At long last, the parasites have given us the weapon of their undoing. They have taken their greatest power, and changed it to a form that can be _attacked."_

And finally, Robin understood.

"That chip doesn't store data any more. I've heavily modified it so it will have the opposite effect. It destroys data now. Without it as a base, I wouldn't have been able to cast as wide a net as I needed. But I have, and now the chip, aided by all my programs and effort, will be sending a signal in the next two minutes. I'll give you three guesses where."

"The stock market."

"Yes. It will serve a two-fold effect Robin! It will make the Crash of 1929 look like the DOW going down ten points! But not just that Robin. You see, the data being destroyed…is very specific. Small companies, struggling to survive against the juggernauts of industry…they won't be harmed. But the big boys…in the next few minutes, are going to find everything they built has disappeared into thin air!"

"I was right. You ARE insane!"

"Insane? No! This will be the key! Without their money, the parasites can no longer hurt people, order them to die for them, bribe them, condition them, indoctrinate everyone with their vile lies! The common man will see the great and the good are no better then them, their superiority a smokescreen, their power an illusion!"

"Lonnie you insane fool! If that signal goes out, you'll smash the entire world economy! Civilization will collapse into chaos!"

"You're wrong Robin! That's what they've always wanted you to think! Soon, you will see the truth! Civilization will collapse, yes, but it will be THEIRS! The common man will finally see how great they can be! Every man a self-leader, every woman a heroine, no longer thinking they need to hate and kill each other! At last, the planet that was created for us, will finally belong to us!"

"That is about as realistic as this embrace you have me in holding me." Robin replied.

And then to Anarky's great shock, Robin twisted, slipped, and then broke out of the grip, leaning down and sweeping Anarky's legs out from under him, even as he leapt away, heading for the computer.

"You know Lonnie, for all your grandiose claims, you really are no better then a mad scientist. Couldn't resist bragging about your plan, and how you were going to carry it out. Your kind NEVER can." Robin said, as he aimed his still working gauntlet at the computer. "In the end, no one can predict every possible option!"

"Oh really?" Anarky said, and pressed a button on his cane.

Light and smoke suddenly erupted from the computer mainframe, blinding Robin, who stumbled back, coughing. He felt Anarky's hands seize him and throw him, and his instincts kicked in, as he rolled, ricocheted off the wall, and landed on one knee before Anarky.

On the computer screen, a timer suddenly flicked on.

1:00…0:59…

"Stay back Robin! Do not let their lies drive you. I don't want to hurt you, but I will!"

"Then I guess I'm a masochist." Robin said, standing up and charging.

"Fine. Forgive me." Anarky said, and pressed another button on his cane. His holograms appeared, leaping and jumping around so the real Anarky was quickly lost.

Robin stopped.

"Too bad Anarky. You haven't learned all you can from your OWN creed. I may be able to see lots of you, but…you can't see me!" Robin said in his best John Cena impression, waving his hand in front of his face.

And then he disappeared.

"A cloaking device!" Anarky said, and leapt forward. 

Only to go slamming into the ground as he took a blow he couldn't see and couldn't defend against.

0:44…0:43…

Anarky leapt up, his holograms swirling around him, looking around.

The kick knocked him on his side, jarring his brain.

0:36…0:35…

Anarky got up again, looking around frantically, his holograms useless, his defense compromised. He had no idea…

Then he stopped. Stood still. Tapped into the depths of his brain and concentrated, blocking out the noise, the heat, and everything else.

0:29…0:28…

And then he threw his cane.

His holograms disappeared as the cane flew at the computer, slamming into something just before it hit the computer.

Robin appeared, his fist still raised in mid-blow, screaming as electricity coursed through him, locking him in a jerky dance.

"Spontaneity can only take you so far, Robin! In the end, what matters is preparation, and knowledge, and anticipating every move!"

Robin screamed…and then thrust his arms down, stopping his jerking dance. Anarky's cane clattered to the ground. Behind his golden mask, Anarky's eyes widened. "What?"

"At last we agree." Robin said, as he turned, directing the electricity he had absorbed through his suit into his gauntlet as he aimed.

"NO!"

The charged X flew out, transforming into a special plastic that wrapped around Anarky and gave him the full voltage of his cane charge. Anarky screamed, as Robin dashed forward, leapt into the air, twirled, and slammed his foot across Anarky's face, knocking off his hat and sending his mask flying across the room as Anarky flew ass over elbows backwards, landing on his chest.

0:12…0:11…

"Always be prepared for EVERYTHING." Robin said, and turned, running back to the computer. Anarky moaned.

Robin summoned all his strength as he aimed for the mainframe.

"Yes…" Anarky whispered. "Everything…Plato."

And the entire front of the computer exploded, throwing Robin across the entire room. He crashed into the wall so hard he nearly caused it to collapse on him.

0:07…0:06…

Robin frantically tried to brush off the cobwebs and the pain as he fought to get to his feet, seeing the time tick down the final few seconds.

0:05…0:04…

"NO!!!!!!!!!!!!" Robin screamed, as he willed himself to move faster then he ever had before, as he sprinted across the room.

0:02…0:01…

Robin reached the computer as he finished rerouting every single charge of power he had left into his gauntlet as he smashed his hand into the wreckage.

…0:00…

Robin felt, rather then heard the command as it was sent out of the mainframe, and then a split second later the whole computer exploded on his face, blowing him across the room again, this time bouncing across the floor, even as a frantic thought filled his mind.

I intercepted it before it got away…I had to… 

Robin got up, shook his head, and pulled himself back up.

And then he heard the laughter.

"YES! YES! AT LAST!" Anarky crowed, standing up. His right arm shifted and then the plastic bond around him snapped off as he finished cutting it with one of his A-Shaped projectiles. "HEADS UP PARASITES! IT'S TIME TO PAY IT ALL BACK!"

"No…" Robin whispered. He couldn't have failed. Not when so much was at stake…

Anarky picked his cane up again.

"Though it was for all the wrong reasons, I congratulate you for your efforts Robin. You skills and courage will bring you great happiness once the world is finally made right. But it is done now. Finally, the lies will be exposed and all the elites will be identified, nullified, and ostracized!" Anarky crowed.

"Lonnie…what have you done?"

"I took away every lie, every falsehood, every single mendacity that the parasites ever told. No more will the common man be their puppets and slaves, their tools and weapons. This walking death has ended. Finally, humanity can start living!"

"Living? LIVING!?!?!??!" Robin screamed. "LONNIE, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!? I admit that the riches of this world are often unfairly distributed, but that tragedy had stability! YOU JUST TOOK IT AWAY! EVERYONE WILL TRY AND CLAIM EVERYTHING FOR THEMSELVES! THEY'LL BE RIOTS! MASSACRES! GENOCIDE! SAVED THE WORLD? YOU JUST DESTROYED IT! YOU AND ALL THE 'COMMON MAN'!"

Anarky, aka Lonnie Machin, watched Robin's tirade calmly, his hands on his cane. For a moment there was silence. And then he spoke.

"Don't you think I knew that?"

Robin stared.

"With all change must come sacrifice. I know…there will be great hardship. There will be death. Possibly a great deal of it. But Robin, you must understand. It is an animal reaction. With the elites destroyed, there will be no need for us to act like animals any more. There will be no need for overspecialization, every man a cog in the machine, to be used and discarded when needed. Yes Robin, there will be tragedy, but from it, a new world will be born, and then there be no more killing. No more lies. No more fighting. Stand with me Robin. Help me bring this about. It will be glorious."

"No…no…" Robin said, pulling his skull mask off and burying his face in his hands, not so much denying Anarky's offer as he was lamenting his failure.

"Robin, I am not forcing you. You may do what you please. That is my gift. But I believe I can accomplish so much more with us together."

"You and I will never be together! NEVER!" Robin raged.

"You speak of your teammates? Well Robin, as much as I hate to admit it, fate smiled on me this time. The Elites were only able to bring you to my door."

"Don't be so sure."

Anarky had been too busy looking at Robin to notice the figures appearing in the doorway, until Cyborg had spoken.

"Ah. Titans. I see you are all safe and unharmed. Good. You will all be welcome in the new world as well."

"Robin…" Starfire said, flying over to her weeping lover's side. "What is wrong."

"I failed…when all the chips were down I failed…I sent you off…I didn't stop Anarky in time…I thought I had it all covered…and I didn't…I destroyed the world."

"You did nothing Robin! In time you will see." Anarky said, as the other Titans gathered around him.

"Oh?" Cyborg said, looking at Anarky. "You think you have won?"

"I have."

"Well…yes, I suppose you would think so, considering the despair of Fearless here." Cyborg said. "Yeah, it was hard tracking him down. I see he put on his old Red-X outfit, presumingly to surprise you. Yes, I don't think we made it in time to aid him…but then again…"

Anarky arched an eyebrow. Something was…off.

"You see, my friend Starfire here, she's still a bit new to this world. Gets fascinated by the strangest things. We were just about to arrive here when something on the ground caught her eye. She thought it was a big piece of licorice! I thought that was funny, but her eyes weren't seeing things. You seem, there was some big-ass cord coming out of some building and connecting to the nearby phone wires. I said it was a cord. She insisted it was licorice. So I got fed up of her sillyness and told her I'll SHOW you it's not licorice…"

Anarky's eyes had gone wide as Cyborg spoke.

"No…NO!"

"So I cut a big piece out of it and offered it to her to take a bite." Cyborg said, taking the hand he had slipped behind his back out. In it was a piece of rubber and wire so big he could barely hold it. "Strangely, she turned me down. Guess cutting it apart convinced her."

"No! What have you done! NO!"

"Sorry Anarky, your money-smashing program got about fifteen feet before it hit a brick wall and shattered. Guess you were too…occupied to notice. And from the state of that computer, I don't think you can send another signal. Oh well, better luck next time."

"NO! NO! NO!" Anarky screamed, realizing that he had been wrong. The stock markets wouldn't be crashing. The electronic signals that kept all the money in existence still existed. He had been thwarted.

"Sorry Lonnie, but much like your brother in law, the Lord, your plan is dead." Raven said.

"No…what have…!" Anarky yelled, bringing up his cane.

A Starbolt blew it out of his hand, and then dark energy buzzed around his side and yanked his crossbow away. A second later, Beast Boy, in the form of a ram, charged into Anarky and sent him flying across the room.

"You did not fail Robin. We 'had your back'. The one thing Anarky could not prepare for, as he was alone." Starfire said. The despair lifted from Robin's heart, as he stood up as his teammates gathered round.

"Well done, everyone. I think that once again we've proven that alone, we're fallable, but together, we can beat anyone. Even those with the best of intentions."

The group headed over to Anarky, who seemed to be doing his best impression of Robin two minutes ago, his face buried in his hands.

"Why why why…world collapsing…madness flaring everywhere…animal brain allowed and continuing to reclaim the conscious mind. The religious slaughters, the tribal massacres, the wars for oil…planet turning into a charnel pit…5% of people have 90% of wealth…grinding poverty…20 million die each year because they're hungry…all caused by the parasites…and paid for by the common man…his wife…their children…just want it to end…to end…" Anarky mumbled to himself. Great pity filled Beast Boy's heart. He should have known from the beginning there had been no bomb. This man could no more kill then Beast Boy could, well, make the world a better place with a snap of his fingers.

"I know it's bad…" Beast Boy said, leaning down and trying to comfort the teenager. "But just as you believe in your changes, we believe the alternative would be far worse."

Anarky's eyes suddenly cleared.

"So you have still learned _nothing."_

With a yell of surprise, Beast Boy found himself being grabbed by Anarky and thrown into his fellows, knocking them all down. They got up quickly, but not quickly enough for Anarky to retreat several steps and pull a strange device out of his coat.

"Anarky! Stop it! It's over!" Robin said.

"Over? It never got a chance to begin! The truth is not a modern miracle Robin! It was written of thousands of years ago! I told your companion to read some Aristotle, he laid the basis for all civilization back in classical Greece! He spoke of man being, in his heart, good, decent, and noble, and if left to his own devices he would seek individual happiness within an orderly society. But for his voice there was another: Plato, who said that man was a wild and savage beast, incapable of self-discipline, who had to be managed for his own best ends by others, rulers; kings, governments, priests, presidents. Two views! One that championed human life and sovereign consciousness that led to happiness, and another that proclaimed that human life was worthless and was only good to be sacrificed to "higher" causes and ideals. Which one do YOU think the world followed?"

"Lonnie…that's not the truth. It's your opinion."

"No. It's _theirs_, masquerading as yours." Anarky hissed. "But not for much longer. They can't stop change Robin, and neither can you, not matter how great your delusion that it is bad. This room, my plan, this device I hold in my hand, speaks of the inevitability! The information revolution is upon us! The old power structures and their fascist ways cannot compete with the anarchy of tomorrow's technology! This way has failed, but I, or another, will find another way! The time of the common man is coming, and I will do everything to hasten its birth!"

"Lonnie…!"

"Goodbye Robin. We must part now, for until the people can see the truth, they need me!"

And he pressed a button on his device.

The Titans threw up their hands as Anarky was consumed in a gigantic flash of light, which was accompanied by a loud BOOM! When the Titans could see again, Anarky was gone.

"Nuts. I heard the rumor, but I didn't think it was true!" Robin said.

"What? What WAS that?" Cyborg asked, looking at the wisps of smoke where Lonnie Machin had been not three seconds ago.

"A Boom Tube. Highly advanced teleportation technology. It was designed on Apokolips, Darkseid's world. I had heard that Lonnie had increased his own intelligence enough to build a small personal one, but I thought it was just rumors. Guess I was wrong." Robin said.

"Where did he go Robin?" Starfire asked.

"Boom Tubes were designed to transport things across interstellar distances. Lonnie could be anywhere on Earth. Hell, he could be on the moon. But he's definitely beyond our reach."

"So…we won! Hooray!" Starfire said.

"I don't know if we can call it winning." Robin said.

"Hey Fearless, we're all ok, and the world is still turning on its axis. What else could you want?" Cyborg said.

Robin said nothing, his face grim as he thought things over.

"Robin…" Raven said. "You aren't believing what Lonnie said, right? That he spoke the truth, about elites and parasites and brainwashing? He was a zealot Tim. When someone is so convinced of their creed, they can sound pretty accurate. But Robin…"

"He WAS right." Robin said. Everyone looked shocked. "Somewhat. There is a lot of unevenness in this world. A small group get so much they're encouraged to waste it, and a much larger group get next to nothing. It is a real problem, and it's terrible. On that Lonnie was right. But…there were flaws in his argument. Not all men and women can make their own choices for everything. Sometimes, people do have to be lead. Sometimes, leaders do have good, noble intentions. Hell, sometimes the people are totally wrong and they just don't realize it, and it takes a true leader to go forward with what he thinks is right rather then kowtow to the majority. Heck, if you really want a world where the people decide everything, where all decisions and choices are made based on polls and mass agreements…"

Robin glanced over to the ruined wreck of Anarky's supercomputer.

"Then you might as well put a computer in charge."

Robin turned back to his teammates.

"Let's go home. This Red-X costume itches."

************************

Some time later, Beast Boy was standing next to a window, looking at the sunset. He supposed he should be grateful that Jump City wasn't burning down, but the incredible amount of stress he had gone through that day had still left him frazzled.

He didn't hear her approach. Raven had a very soft step.

"Gar?"

"Yeah Rae? What is it? If you're hungry it's Cyborg's turn to cook tonight. Isn't that good? You'll have 'real' food." Beast Boy said sarcastically.

"No..it's not that…it's just that…well Gar, I don't think I thanked you properly."

"For the not-a-bomb? Ah forget it. Any of the others would have done the same."

"Maybe…but you went back Gar. You were willing to die with me on a risk. Not many people would do that…and I know why."

Gar suddenly found himself blushing.

"Uh…er…"

"I know you found me attractive Gar. And I know you resent Noel a bit for what happened. And my feelings haven't changed. But all the same…" Raven said, leaning down and kissing Beast Boy on the cheek. "I won't forget it. Ever."

"Er…uh…aw shucks…" Beast Boy said, brushing the back of his head in the way embarrassed people do. Raven gave him a small smile and started to walk away.

"Hey Rae…since you kinda know…I just wonder…you think it could ever happen?"

"You and I?"

"Uh…yeah."

Raven glanced over her shoulder, the small smile still on her face. 

"Well…its much like you disarming a bomb. You say you couldn't do it, but hey…you never know." Raven said, and turned away. "Take care Gar."

"You too Rae." Beast Boy said. For a moment, he felt lighter then air.

Then reality, as well as Cyborg's heavy hand, came slamming back down on him.

"My MAN." Cyborg said in the special conspiratory tone that only guys have. "You are becoming quite the pimp!"

"AH SHADDUP!"

"Oh, you're so tense! Would you like a massage?"

"I SAID SHADDUP! I'm tense because of that bloody not-a-bomb. I might have been willing to die for that risk, but what you're feeling in the moment and what you realize you risked later are as different as night and day! It's scary Vic!"

"I know. But I think I have the answer. You know that annual arcade and computer game tournament Jump City has? I got tickets."

"You did? WICKED! We can enter and we can kick butt and I can show off my mad skillz…!" Beast Boy said, playing on a phantom controller. Sometimes all you need is one specific thing to take your mind off your troubles.

"Gar, how can you show off what you don't have?"

"OK THAT'S IT!"

CLANK!

"OWWWWWWWW!"

"Ha ha, metal part again!"

The ensuring chase lasted nearly half an hour.

***********************************

All truth has three stages.

First it is mocked.

Then it is violently opposed.

And then it is accepted as self-evident.

Imagine. You're a child again. Filled with innocence, and wonder, and life. Remember how good it felt?

That's what the parasites stole from us. They bled us dry. And like sheep we lined up to give more blood.

But we can have back all they stole, and more.

The information age provides a spotlight the parasites can't squirm away from.

Identify them. Negate their evil. Ostracize them.

Step with me into a better world.

The End

Of This Arc, Anyway.

Next Up, a Mini-Arc With Cyborg and Beast Boy, as they try to have some fun! And knowing me, find more trouble.

Next: Cyborg and Beast Boy!

Game On.


	6. Cyborg and Beast Boy: They Got Game

Chapter 5: They Got Game

Most people find the quiet peaceful, but to Beast Boy, the terrible racket was more soothing then any amount of whispering wind and birdsong could have been.

"You know, it's strange that we're not getting more attention." Beast Boy said.

"Not really." Cyborg replied, pointing at three people dressed up in costumes that resembled famous video game characters. "Maybe people think we're just other performers."

"Speaking of performing, let's go find the Ultra Mega Championship Turbo Battle Warrior 3 ¾ games! I wanna show my stuff!" Beast Boy said, as he put his hands on his hips and puffed out his chest.

"BB, you better be careful. What you think and what really is don't always match up…" Cyborg said, and then Cyborg was interrupted by a sharp eyed gamer who wanted an autograph. Beast Boy, annoyed that no one was asking him (what, was it the hair? Was he too short? The fur?), watched an exhibition match that was being broadcast on a giant screen.

The tournament was divided into three sections: computer games, which were on the top floor and were mostly first person shooters, which didn't interest Beast Boy much. The floor between the top and bottom ones had console games, but the racing part of that tourney wouldn't start until the evening, and even the exhibition part was a bit off. Hence, Beast Boy and Cyborg were on the bottom floor, arcade games, which were mostly fighting.

They also had long lines, and hence he and Cyborg were doing a lot of walking around. Or just plain standing, as Beast Boy watched the screen. It was the latest game in the long running King of Fighters series, and whoever was playing the left side was GOOD. As Beast Boy watched, whoever was playing destroyed all three of the other player's characters with his starting character. Beast Boy gulped. He had some skills, but THAT…

"Hey, they're starting up the amateur challenges." Cyborg said, tapping Beast Boy on the shoulder. Beast Boy looked at what Cyborg was pointing at: a group of new machines being set up. That was fine, but what made it even better was that was hardly anyone around them.

"Mine mine mine!" Beast Boy said, turning into a weasel to quickly zip through the crowd. He reached the machines and returned to his normal form, much to the great surprise of the man who was signing up entrants.

The tournaments were set up this way: there were a few players who got automatic entry, and everyone else had to compete for a spot. There were four available in the Final 8, and then it was winner take all.

Now, Beast Boy, in his heart, knew he wasn't going to win the tournament. But he played a fair amount of games, and he had good reflexes, and he knew the rules. So, as he gave the thumbs up to Cyborg, who was watching (while signing more autographs, grrrr), and went to his assigned machine, he figured he could probably make it a fair distance. Hell, with some luck, he might even make the Final 8!

*********************

You could have sworn someone dumped a bucket of red paint over Beast Boy's head. Even his green fur seemed to be tinted red.

"Dude…what happened…?" he was saying, stunned. Cyborg was patting him on the shoulder, supposedly in consolation, but his arm had that slight trembling quality that a person who is struggling mightily to keep from exploding into laughter had.

"Well BB, maybe he just…well…BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Cyborg said, losing the battle. With an indignant look, Beast Boy slapped Cyborg's arm off of him.

"Dude, it wasn't funny."

"That's because of where you were. Really BB, friendship aside, BWAHAHAHAHHAHA!" Cyborg laughed, doubling over.

It really had been a route. Maybe it was luck (or lack of) of the draw, or maybe Gar Logan had overestimated his skills at fighting games, but he had been completely overmatched. His opponent, a 14 year old redhead in a dragon shirt, had used a technique known in fighting game lexicon as turtling: using a defensive/countering strategy. And the boy had been VERY VERY VERY GOOD at this, knocking Beast Boy out of every attack and counter he had tried. Before he knew it, he had lost, while barely making a dent in his opponent. Humiliating.

"C'mon man, it ain't so bad. Look, he's trashing everyone else the same way." Cyborg said, pointing. Indeed, the Redheaded Turtlerer was doing just that.

"I would have liked to have won ONE round." Beast Boy grumped.

"BB, you're good. I'll admit that. As much as I diss you, you have skill. But to you, these games are a hobby. To people like that, they're an OBSESSION. These people spend HOURS every DAY learning these games INSIDE AND OUT down to every single frame of animation. Why didn't you win? Simple? You have a life."

It made sense, and it did make Beast Boy feel better, but all the same…losing stunk.

So Cyborg and Beast Boy stood and watched the rest of the tournament (from their angle anyway, there was another line of machines to the back of the ones Beast Boy had played on where the rest of the tournament was happening, which they couldn't see), and though he hated to admit it, Beast Boy saw he could have had it worse. There were a few other players like Redhead Turtlerer in the crowd: experts among good casual players, and they made sure people knew it via the way they played. Beast Boy saw them play with their arms crossed over, reversing the usual left hand/joystick right hand/buttons setup, with only one hand, with them standing backwards. Hell, one player handicapped himself by playing blindfolded for the first two rounds. He still won.

Eventually, the four finalists had been decided, though two were on the other side. The two Beast Boy could see were Blindfold Boy, and yes, the Redhead Turtlerer.

"See look, the guy who beat you is the finals. Feel better?"

"No." Yes. Gar thought, though he would never admit it to Cyborg.

The Redhead Turtlerer began to leave, and then Beast Boy noticed them for the first time. Two large men in sunglasses peeled off from their positions and began to follow the boy.

"Hey, Cy!" Beast Boy said, discreetly pointing. "I think we may have a problem!"

Cyborg looked, even as a third sunglasses-clad man joined the other two, drawing closer to the boy.

"I see. Ok then, wait for them to get away from the crowd."

Cyborg began making his way through the group, while Beast Boy went behind a pillar, turned into a gecko, and climbed up the pillar and across the ceiling, keeping an eye on the kid as he headed for the bathroom, which was pretty much the only quiet place in the whole building.

The three men in sunglasses drew closer to the boy, even as a forth one started working his way across the room at a parallel angle that would intercept the boy's. 

Beast Boy sprinted ahead of them and climbed down the wall near the bathroom, as Cyborg made his own way to the group.

The forth man stepped in front of the boy, and started reaching for him.

"HIYA!"

Beast Boy, as a kangaroo, leapt onto the man's back, sending him flying. The boy looked highly startled, as did the three men behind him. Then they began to draw guns.

"I don't think so!" Cyborg said, stepping in front of the boy, arming his sonic cannon.

"You won't be kidnapping this annoyingly highly skilled kid anytime soon!" Beast Boy said as he became human again and stood by Cyborg.

Strange. The three men in sunglasses didn't look angry that their heinous plot had been foiled. Instead, they looked…confused. As if they were trying to make sense of Cyborg and Beast Boy being there.

Then Beast Boy felt someone tapping on his shoulder.

"Uh…" Redhead Turtlerer said. "They aren't trying to kidnap me. They're with me."

"WHAAAAA?" Beast Boy said. The men in sunglasses seemed to think the danger, if there had been any, had passed, as they holstered their guns. One went to check on the man Beast Boy had kicked, while another stepped close and pulled out a badge.

"Agent John Cleary, Secret Service." He said. "I assume you are the members of the local benign teenage metahuman organization known as the Teen Titans?"

"Um, yes?" Beast Boy said.

"Understood. Cancel the order. Tell them to stand down." Agent Cleary said, putting his badge away. "You're lucky I'm a nice guy. Half the force wants you arrested for that little stunt. But I'll let you go, provided you tell no one we're here."

"Uh ok. Why ARE you here?" Cyborg asked.

"The boy you wanted to protect from being "kidnapped" is the son of Senator Nolan. We're here to keep an eye on him while he participates in this event. You must understand the Senator is a very busy man, and doesn't have much time for his son. And you also know why he must be guarded. And why it would be best if you don't say anything about him being here."

"…Yeah." Cyborg said, making a connection. Senator Nolan was an up and coming juggernaut in Washington. Since Cyborg could read so fast with his electronic eyes, he always read every single page of a newspaper, and hence knew some politics. There was a strong rumour that Senator Nolan would be running for president when the current one's second term was up. Cyborg could understand why his son (his name was Graham, Cyborg recalled) would have protection.

"Good then. And next time you want to get involved, DON'T." Agent Cleary said, walking away.

Cyborg looked over at Beast Boy, who was once again having his face do its best impression of a ripe tomato.

"It…looked bad…" he sputtered.

"Hey, I ain't judging you. Don't let those guys get under your skin, it's their job to act like that."

"Yeah…well, at least no one saw us." Beast Boy said, as he and Cyborg headed back into the hubbub. Indeed, everyone was too busy watching the games.

"Yeah, convenient."

"You know, considering how bad this day has been, I'm not going to say how could it get worse, because fate will surely…"

"…and they call those barfeaters competition? Those snotlickers couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag! Another reason why THEY suck and I'M great!"

Beast Boy and Cyborg stopped at the familiar annoying voice.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Beast Boy yelled.

Indeed, it was Gizmo, strutting along in costume, accompanied by Jinx and Mammoth. Though they had opted for lower-key clothing, even though Mammoth's sheer size pretty much rendered the point moot. Jinx was wearing black jeans and a black shirt, her usual twin ponytails removed and her hair down around her ears. Mammoth was wearing a grey sweatsuit and a baseball cap. Gizmo was in his green costume, as mentioned.

"Giz, stop gloating so much. It never leads to anything good." Jinx said in a resigned tone.

"Please! You saw how I trashed those crudmunchers! Just a few more wannabe's to smash and we'll be in the money!" Gizmo crowed.

"Which we could accumulate much easier by robbing a bank." Mammoth said.

"Please, too easy! We're the Troika! The pride of the H.I.V.E! We work hard, and we play hard, and…" Gizmo stopped as he saw Cyborg and Beast Boy for the first time. "Well, speak of the loser! It's Cy-dork and Beast…Dork!"

Mammoth yawned. Jinx looked bored.

"Whaddya think? Should we splatter 'em?" Mammoth asked.

"Nah, we're not working right now. Let's just go over there and call them names." Jinx replied.

"OXECUTE THEM!" Gizmo said, pulling out some kind of gun that shot a stream of goo at Jinx, though from the look on her face it was clear that wasn't his intention. She reared back and gave him a powerful slap.

"STOP THAT! You want to bring the police and the rest of the Titans running?" Jinx hissed. Gizmo cowered.

"Yer beautiful in yer wrath." Mammoth said in his best John Wayne. Jinx beamed, and then the three of them started over towards Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"Ah, here they come! To surrender no doubt!" Beast Boy said. While the Troika had been talking, he and Cyborg had done their own little powwow and decided not to start anything: two on three was too much, even for them. But Cyborg has his emergency signal primed for the slightest sign of trouble: one press and the others would be here within a minute at most.

"Well well, I thought I had seen the biggest losers on the floor, but you snotheads blow them all away!" Gizmo said.

"Funny, the scoreboard still seems to support OUR side for wins." Beast Boy said. "Hell, anyone can win a…YEEEKKKK!"

Jinx had waved her hand, and Beast Boy had shifted his position slightly at the exact same time Cyborg had taken a step back. As a result, Cyborg tripped over Beast Boy's leg, and in waving his arms to try and get his balance pulled Beast Boy down with him, as the two landed in a heap. The Troika began laughing their heads off.

"If you feel like it, you can come watch me kick ass in the finals! Later LOSERS!" Gizmo chortled, and the Troika walked off.

"Gonna rip them apart and make them eat each other…" Beast Boy cursed as he got up, murder in his eyes. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Not yet." Cyborg said. "Too many people in here. We'll keep an eye on them, and the second they leave…we make another notch on our belt."

"I'm game." Beast Boy replied. Man, how could this day get any worse?

***********************

He hated his job, but one had to make a living, even one dressed in a hot, smelly costume that most kids liked simply because they could abuse them and get away with it. It was times like these that a simple pleasure like a cigarette seemed better then any riches on earth or paradise in heaven could be.

Too bad for him, as he took a long puff. It would be his last pleasure.

He was bringing in the cigarette for another puff when he felt the hands encircle his neck.

"Smoking? Filthy habit."

The poor guy never knew what hit him, as the white-gloved hands twisted, breaking his neck with a low crack. With a chuckle, the hands dragged the body into the shadows.

***********************

It was time for the finals, a fact that Beast Boy and Cyborg had mistimed when they went to get lunch, and by the time they had gotten back a large crowd had gathered. Beast Boy and Cyborg were stuck at the back. At least they could see, as the finals were taking place on the gigantic TV that Beast Boy had been watching earlier.

"We have had the drawings, so let us begin. No 1, Jeffrey Deaver!" the announcer said. It was actually Graham, but Cyborg knew there wasn't a mixup: a false name was right up the alleyway of Graham's situation.

The crowd applauded, though with no real spirit as none of them knew Graham. Graham waved. Hanging onto some wires in a monkey form, Beast Boy could see Agent Cleary and his associates placed around the front, keeping an eye on their charge.

"And No 2, Gizmo!"

The crowd immediately began to boo, as Gizmo's antics had actually succeeded in giving a rep, abet a bad one. Gizmo hopped up and down in rage and gave the crowd the finger, and then the two turned towards the game.

"Go buddy! Kick his butt!" Beast Boy said. Cyborg didn't have to guess who Beast Boy was cheering for, and he gave Gar credit for not blurting out Graham's real name.

Though it looked like Gar had jinxed Graham, as Gizmo took the first round with a furious offensive attack.

"Ah crap! Is he loses to that midget, I'LL never live it down!" Beast Boy said.

The second round went better. Apparently Graham had tossed out a character he was less proficient in to test Gizmo's strategy, and he quickly turtled up and took apart Gizmo's character with counter moves. Angry, Gizmo came out swinging with his second character, but Graham's counters kept him at bay, through eventually Gizmo won by basis of having more energy. But all it took was one attack from Graham's third and final character to knock him out, and he and Gizmo went into the final round tied 1-1.

Now the crowd was cheering for Graham (well, Jeffrey, but you know), if only because Gizmo was so immature and obnoxious.

And it proved his undoing, as unlike Graham, he refused to learn from his opponent's moves, and Graham found his pattern and exploited it. The end came when Gizmo attempted a sweep kick into an unblockable super move, only to have Graham initiate a move that had his character leap over Gizmo's and kick her in the back to take away her last chunk of energy.

The crowd exploded.

So did Gizmo.

"YOU CHEATED! YOU SNOTHEAD, YOU CHEATED YOU CHEATER!" Gizmo screamed. Beast Boy could see Graham's protection getting ready to move in, but Jinx made her way up on stage and dragged Gizmo off, while he still struggled and screamed.

"Ain't karma fun at times?" Cyborg said.

"Oh yeah."

*******************

"Stand down, problem has fixed itself…will now retrieve subject…" one of the Secret Service agents was saying into the incredibly small mike on his wrist when he felt someone bump into him. He turned quickly, ready to defend himself, but it was just one of the morons in costumes that were walking around, some blue creature of some kind with spines on its back.

The costume man waved, and began to dance as if trying to entertain him. He snorted.

"Go away, I'm not amused."

The costume continued to dance.

"Beat it! I don't…" the agent said, and that was his last word as the costume suddenly took a step and was right up to him, driving its padded fist into his gut and then kneeing him in the face when he doubled over, driving bone spurs into his brain.

And then the costume whirled, as it extracted a sub-machine gun from somewhere and opened fire.

The crowd screamed as bullets ripped through the room, but the costumed man only had eyes for certain targets as he blew away the Secret Service agents in sunglasses.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Cyborg yelled, and he would have been over there in a second has he not been trampled beneath a surge of people running to get away. Beast Boy would have been trampled too, had he not turned into a hawk and flown above the mess.

Graham was standing stock still, still frozen in shock, as Agent Cleary dived for him. But the costumed man got him first, bullets ripping across the floor and blasting the agent in the legs. He went down with a scream.

"John!" Graham cried. At this point the gun the costumed man was holding clicked dry. He snorted, shifted a bit, dropping the Uzi, and then his costume ripped apart as he cut it open with a knife from within, stepping out.

"Don't move kid!" he yelled. He was quite a sight. A tall spindly figure, he wore a deep blue…something. It kind of looked like a coat, except it was designed like a dress, completely wrapping around the man and hiding his feet. It definitely looked like a dress, actually, with lots of loose fabric around his feet and shins and loose cuffs spotted with orange dots around his wrists. The man wore a flowing white scarf around his neck and white gloves on his hands. His hair was also white, and stuck out from each side of his head. His face was obscured with a blue mask that turned his eyes a pupil-less red, though he had a really long pointy nose that would have made identifying him without it not too difficult. The man topped his look off with an incredibly tall blue top hat that he was putting on, even as he drew a revolver on Graham. He looked very odd, yes, but also very dangerous, and also, kind of cool.

"Who…who are you?" Graham said, his voice quaking.

"Allow me to introduce myself!" the masked killer said, doing a slight bow. "I am the Tally Man! I'm a debt collector."

"Why…did you…"

"Kill your guards? Because kid, your father did some things he never told you about to get to the top. And while he paid the people who did him the favours back for it, he snubbed them as soon as he grabbed his brass ring, leaving them behind like they were garbage! The people who hired me are very big on honour, kid. Your father insulted them, dearly, and he has to pay for it. They hired me to collect the debt. Which is you Kid. Nothing personal. I do what I'm hired for. Relax. It'll be painless." The Tally Man said, and aimed at Graham's head.

And then he yelled as a laser blasted the gun out of his hand. Yes, the Teen Titans have arrived! They will save the day, and beat the evil villain, and probably say some neat things in the process, and…

"HANDS OFF, boogerbreath!"

Wait…that doesn't sound right.

The Tally Man, clutching his slightly burned hand, turned towards the voice.

"That crudlicker is mine!" Gizmo said, his battle pack now on his back, Jinx on one side with her hair back in pigtails, and Mammoth on the other. "Now surrender or face the Troika!"

And Cyborg, his body covered with footprints, got up on one knee as he watched this play out, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"

To Be Continued.


	7. Cyborg and Beast Boy: Tallying Up

Chapter 6: Tallying Up

"This cannot be happening." Cyborg said.

But it was. The Troika has stopped the Tally Man from murdering Graham, though Cyborg doubted it was from any sudden burst of morality or nobleness.

He was right.

"Odd. I didn't think there was a reward for this job. What are you children doing here?" The Tally Man said.

"That barf brain cheated to beat me! If anyone is going to trash him, it's gonna be me! Now back off or I'll put another laser beam across your nose. Wait, scratch that, considering the size, it'll probably go up it!" Gizmo said, and the Troika laughed. The Tally Man seemed remarkably unperturbed by the insult.

"Children, children. Surely we can work something out. I do have a sizable cash consideration here…" The Tally Man began.

"Back off scarecrow! Our buddy wants him, and what he wants, he gets!" Mammoth growled, cracking his knuckles.

"And since you're delaying me, I've decided I want to trash you too!" Gizmo said, as spindly legs emerged from his battle backpack, pushing Gizmo off the ground. The spider legs deployed, Gizmo pulled out a two-handed laser rifle. "So long boogerlicker!"

"Hmmm, yes." The Tally Man said.

And then his right arm twisted as a new revolver slid into his right hand, a gun he aimed and fired at Gizmo, just as Gizmo was aiming and firing his own gun at the Tally Man. However, the Tally Man was a lot quicker on the draw.

The bullet slammed into the laser cannon, throwing it to the side, and Gizmo yelled in shock as the gun discharged and blasted Jinx instead, throwing her across the room with a scream before she crashed through a game exhibit.

"YOU…!" Gizmo yelled, trying to aim the gun back, but while Gizmo was blasting his companion the Tally Man had slid the pistol back into his sleeve, slipped his right foot under his empty Uzi and flipped it up, grabbing it in mid-air even as he drew a new clip from within the folds of his loose wrist fabric. Faster then most people could follow, the Tally Man ejected the empty clip and slammed the new one in,

Gizmo fired.

The Tally Man dodged to the side and opened fire in four quick, precise bursts, blasting the upper joints of Gizmo's spider walker. The legs spasmed, shaking the midget genius, and then with a yell of protestation and anger, the legs suddenly went nuts, bending over to the point where they were pressing Gizmo against the ground. Apparently Tally Man had caused them to malfunction.

That was bad enough, but what followed was far worse, as the legs suddenly sprang out, propelling themselves and Gizmo straight up, Gizmo yelling all the way.

They slammed into the ceiling, and then plummeted down to the floor, the legs breaking apart under the impact as Gizmo slammed into the ground, knocked cold.

Roaring, Mammoth charged, but Tally Man ducked under him, going through his legs, and as he leapt back up he yanked a second Uzi from within his coat/dress outfit. Growling, Mammoth turned, and Tally Man opened fire. Mammoth recoiled as bullets filled the air. He was very tough, but not exactly invulnerable, and hence he held his defence as bullets ripped through the giant screen behind him, showers of glass filling the air.

The guns clicked dry, and Mammoth lowered his arms. He hadn't felt a single impact.

"That IT?" he asked, smirking.

"Pretty much." Tally Man responded.

And then Mammoth heard wires snapping, and turned around as the giant TV began tipping forward. The device was very top and front heavy, and to keep it from tipping forward, workers had rigged lines at its top and back to hold it up.

Which the Tally Man had just severed with a storm of bullets. With a scream, the giant electronic device collapsed on top of Mammoth with a cloud of dust and small parts. Without a further word, Tally Man ejected his empty clips.

"All filler, no killer." He said, slipping his Uzi's back into his outfit and withdrawing his second pistol from within his wrist fabric. The first one had been destroyed by Gizmo's shot, but no matter. Tally Man went hunting.

He didn't have to go far. Graham was trying to get Agent Cleary to safety (apparently they had some kind of bond), dragging his far heavier frame as best he could. A loud gunshot stopped him, the bullet coming so close to him Graham felt the wind shear.

"Far enough kid." The Tally Man said. "Now, I don't much appreciate you running. A real man would stay and die. But I'm a nice guy. So I'll give you a choice."

The Tally Man cocked back the hammer on his revolver. Agent Cleary had apparently passed out, or been knocked out, and couldn't do anything to defend the terrified teenager.

"You want to see it coming, or do you want to turn around?"

"How about option C, none of the above?"

The Tally Man's eyebrow arched, and he turned his head to look at Cyborg.

"Ah, a Teen Titan. Finally, someone who can fight!" The Tally Man said. He turned towards Cyborg, lowering his gun. Cyborg understood, as he armed his sonic cannon but didn't fire it, keeping it by his side. "So, you think you can beat me?"

"Hell yeah. If we can beat Killjoy, we can beat you."

"Killjoy? Silly child, he's an urban legend."

"Shows how much YOU know."

"Well then, let's see if your draw is as quick as your impudence."

The two stared at each other.

(Insert the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly here).

And then Beast Boy leapt from the side as a tiger, snarling and putting every ounce of muscle behind his leaping charge…

…that went right over Tally Man's back as he ducked gracefully. He didn't even lose his top hat, as he straightened up to look at Cyborg's surprised face.

"Bad form!" The Tally Man chastised.

Cyborg aimed, but the Tally Man was quicker, as he fired four times in quick succession, the slugs all hitting the same six square inches. It was amazing aim, and though the slugs didn't have enough power to penetrate Cyborg's armor it was enough to knock him on his ass.

Roaring, Beast Boy charged again, this time as a hippotomous. His thundering footsteps gave him away, but Beast Boy had wagered his larger mass would make him impossible to dodge.

He was wrong, as the Tally Man slammed his hand down on the top of Beast Boy's closing jaw and flipped himself over onto his back, rolling along the blubbery flesh as he slipped off the other end, avoiding Beast Boy's stomping rear legs as he leapt to his feet and fired his last two shots into Beast Boy's rear. As a hippo, his skin was too thick for the calibre to penetrate, but it still hurt, (felt a lot like being lashed with a whip) and Beast Boy roared/cried as he turned back into a human, holding his sore rear end.

The Tally Man snapped open his empty revolver as he produced a Speed-Loader from somewhere and slammed six new bullets in.

"I'll gladly continue this, but first, I have a debt to collect!" The Tally Man said, and swung his gun back at Graham.

Beast Boy turned into a housecat and sprinted over in front of Graham, and just as the Tally Man fired he transformed into an Ankleosaurus, a heavily armoured dinosaur. Three bullets thudded harmlessly into his armor as he stood between the Tally Man and Graham, but the effort of switching from a small mass to a large one so suddenly had left him a bit groggy and hence he couldn't counter.

Cyborg did it for him, as a sonic blast slammed into Tally Man's back and sent him flying forward into Beast Boy's mass. Tally Man turned with a growl, firing his last three shots at Cyborg, who dodged and fired another blast. He missed, the blast thudding into Beast Boy's side.

"Ow!"

"Sorry!"

"You sure are!" Beast Boy growled, as he pushed himself to the side a bit, shoving Tally Man forward. Tally Man turned to counter.

And then he screamed. For Beast Boy had turned from a dinosaur to a crocodile, but it was clear that THIS crocodile had walked with the dinosaur's prehistoric cousins, for it was nearly fifty feet long. Once again shielding Graham, Beast Boy opened his now gigantic mouth and snapped it forward suddenly, the lower jaw slamming into Tally Man's legs and pitching him into Beast Boy's maw.

Beast Boy wasn't going to eat him though. Tally Man was far smaller prey then this ancient predator had hunted, and hence the Tally Man was between the rows of teeth, on Beast Boy's tongue. He was going to squeeze and shake Tally Man senseless in there, not bite or swallow, and he began.

The Tally Man was a fighter through, trying to keep the living walls of flesh from pressing him as he thrust his hands up and tried to keep Beast Boy's mouth open. But Beast Boy was stronger, and the Tally Man found himself driven to his knees.

The pressure was immense, but the Tally Man was known for keeping cool under situations like this, as he slipped his hands down, trying to keep Beast Boy's mouth open with his shoulder, as he clawed at his sleeve.

He found it, and with a yell and a blur of movement he snapped his pistol open, slammed his second Speed-Loader into it, and jammed the gun against the ceiling of Beast Boy's mouth, emptying the gun into the tissue. Beast Boy bellowed, and Tally Man found himself falling out as Beast Boy transformed back to normal, holding onto his jaw as if he had the mother of all toothaches. Which, considering what had just happened, is probably what it felt like.

"And that will teach you it isn't about who has the biggest one." The Tally Man said, as he opened his revolver again to load more ammo.

Then he realized it: Graham was gone. The Tally Man's head turned as he looked around the room, but the child and his main guard were nowhere to be seen. He had slipped away while Beast Boy was trying to eat him.

The Tally Man's face twisted in rage. Now his element of surprise was ruined. It would be nearly impossible to get close to the kid now. Which made it nearly impossible to collect the debt. All because of a bunch of meddling kids.

"I wonder…how many non-lethal wounds I can inflict…before the damage adds up to enough to kill you?" The Tally Man said, pulling out yet another Speed Loader. "Shall we start the tally?"

A burst of machine gun fire raked the ground just behind Tally Man, and he jerked away, dropping his second revolver. He turned around as Cyborg's auto-cannon cooled down.

"Tally THIS up, motherfucker." Cyborg said. Rage blazed in the Tally Man's eyes, as his jaw clenched, revealing his highly elongated teeth, which much resembled his nose in sheer extent.

"LEAVE MY MOTHER OUT OF THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he screamed, pulling out his twin Uzi's. Cyborg's gun spun up again and opened fire, as the Tally Man squeezed both triggers. Bullets filled the air, as the Tally Man started running and Cyborg matched his moves with his own. The pain in his jaw fading (again, tissue too tough for bullets to hurt it), Beast Boy threw his arms around his head and curled into a fetal ball to avoid all the carnage around him.

A few bullets hit Cyborg, but he ignored them, zig zagging in closer, even as televisions exploded around him and carefully designed exhibits turned into swiss cheese. But he finally got in close, as he rolled under the final burst and came up in front of the Tally Man, right between his Uzi's, and…

His gun clicked dry. He was out of ammo. The Tally Man smiled.

"You're empty." He said, and aimed his Uzi's.

Click.

"So are you." Cyborg said in his best Neo impression, and converted his autocannon into his sonic blaster and let loose, throwing the Tally Man across the room. Cyborg got up, and since he couldn't kiss his own head, he kissed his hand and tapped his cranium. What good were computers if they couldn't serve useful functions like counting shots?

Cyborg stomped (well, he was running, but his sheer bulk made it look like stomping) over to where the Tally Man was getting up. The Tally Man looked at his empty guns, and then tossed them aside in disgust. Strangely, he had somehow kept the top hat on his head the whole time.

"I don't need a gun to beat some kid, even if he is a metal robot freak!" The Tally Man said, and swung his fist out.

CLONG!

"OOWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The Tally Man shrieked, holding his hand as he did a goofy little dance of pain. Cyborg smiled, and cocked back his fist.

"Say goodnight Gracie."

Cyborg swung.

And the Tally Man's pain suddenly vanished as he dodged to the side, wrapping his right arm around Cyborg's forearm even as he snapped out his left one, a third revolver falling into his hand.

"Goodnight." The Tally Man said, and aimed the gun at Cyborg's elbow joint.

"NO!" Cyborg screamed.

The Tally Man emptied the gun into the joint, bullets smashing through the weaker armour, and as Cyborg gasped in pain the Tally Man stepped backwards and yanked violently, wrenching his arm off at the elbow. Cyborg stumbled back, clutching his stump, as the Tally Man grinned his long grin and shifted his hand so he could grab yet another Speed-Loader. At this distance, he could put one through Cyborg's still organic eye.

"Well kid, I guess you learned a valuable lesson for your next life. In the end, it comes down to who can use their…armaments better." The Tally Man said, and aimed at Cyborg, who was still hunched over, clutching his stump.

Before he looked up grinning.

"How VERY true."

And then metal cables sprang from the limb. The Tally Man had stupidly not dropped the appendage, instead keeping it tucked under his own arm, and he paid for it as the cables wrapped around him. He yelled and tried to break out, throwing the arm away, but two small jets extracted from the arm and ignited, flying around the Tally Man and wrapping him up like a Christmas present.

"Game over man." Cyborg said, and ducked.

And Beast Boy sprang over him, again in the form of a kangaroo, and kicked the Tally Man in the face as hard as he could, so hard he bounced off the Tally Man's chest, Cyborg's arm jerked at an angle as it tied the cord and cut it off, sending it flying through the air. As Beast Boy and the Tally Man did their own flips, Beast Boy transformed back into a human.

He landed next to Cyborg.

Cyborg grabbed his arm and snapped it back on.

And the Tally Man landed on his face, knocking him senseless.

"Game Over." Beast Boy finished.

And the two teenage heroes struck a pose as a fiery background appeared behind them.

A short pause.

The background disappeared back into whatever ether it had come from, and Beast Boy and Cyborg, coming down from the adrenaline rush, both sweatdropped.

"Man, I am so glad no one saw that." Beast Boy said.

***************************

"Thank you. Both of you." Said the female agent. Keeping the record perfect, no sooner then twenty seconds after Beast Boy and Cyborg had defeated the Tally Man had the place been swarming with police and Secret Service.

"Ah, it was nothing! Just a day's work for this city's greatest superhero team!" Beast Boy said, beaming in a prideful way. Cyborg pinched him, and he yelped. "HEY!"

"You're just asking for him to get back up and try and ventilate us." Cyborg said to Beast Boy. "So, Mr. Nolan is all right?"

"Thanks to you. We've got him in a safe location. The kid even saved the life of his main guard." The agent said.

"Well, that just shows you don't need powers to be amazing." Cyborg said.

Pause.

"Dude, that was SO FREAKIN CLICHÉ! That was a Cliché Burger With Extra Cliché with a side of Cliché Fries!" Beast Boy said.

"Just because it's a cliché doesn't mean it's not true." Cyborg said.

"Yeah well…but geez, you gotta find a better way!" Beast Boy said.

A large cluster of SS Agents walked into the room, conferred with the female Agent, and started heading back out. Beast Boy saw Graham in with them. Graham saw him too, and waved. Beast Boy waved back and gave him a thumbs up. Graham returned it, and then the female Agent walked back over to him.

"Agent Cleary asked me to tell you something…he said…thanks for getting involved."

Beast Boy chuckled nervously, putting his hand behind his head in the body language of the embarrassed.

A policeman was approaching the two Titans.

"Excuse me, uh, Cy-bot?"

"Borg."

"Oh. Well Mr. Borg…"

"CY-BORG!"

"Ok ok! We have a small problem."

"Oh? What is it?"

"Um…well…it might be best if you see for yourself." The policeman said, and led Cyborg and Beast Boy over to some wreckage. Lying on top of it was an unconscious Jinx.

"Oh shoot! I forgot all about the Troika! Well, I still got enough…!" Cyborg said, his arm cannon returning.

"No no! She was the only one we found. We know she's a member of a trio…you say they were here?"

"Yeah. We didn't try anything because of the crowds, and when the Tally Man showed he took them out…it's a bit complicated."

"Well, she's the only one. The others must have fled."

"Without her? That's strange…" Cyborg said, and it was: the Troika were about as close as delinquents could be. "Well, what's the problem? She's still out cold."

"Well, um…you see, we know she possesses metahuman talents…"

"Actually, she's a sorceress. She uses magic."

"Um, yes. Well, in any case, we really don't have the holding capacities to deal with a super-powered teenager. So…um…"

Ah ha. Cyborg thought. Translation: We really don't want to be holding her when her superstrong and superbrainy companions show up to bust her out. Could you hang onto her for we can avoid that (to us) very unpleasant situation?

"You're in luck officer, we do have a holding cell back in Titans Tower that can hold her. We'll handle it." Cyborg said. The police looked relieved. Cyborg chuckled to himself and pulled out his arm phone, dialing a number.

"Hey Rae, it's Cy. We are in need of your particular talent."

*************************

"And then we called Raven, and that was it." Cyborg said, sipping a strange concoction that was 30% normal liquids and 70% special liquids Cyborg had to drink to keep his body in top working order (and would make someone normal violently sick if they drank them).

"Man. Well first, good work guys. Second, what gives? Why does everything we do somehow end in a fight?" Robin said.

"It is as if there is something out there that always arranges it so trouble is wherever we go." Starfire said. Her eyes floated over to a wall that had a large crack in it. "And I also think this building is falling down. That's the forth cracked wall I've seen today."

Raven walked into the room.

"Ok, Jinx is in the chamber and all the locks and devices are armed, double-checked, and linked to the failsafes. Now, if no one minds, I have some business to attend to tonight, and I need to be going." Raven said.

"Go ahead. We four can keep an eye on Jinx." Robin said.

"Actually, just you two. Gar and I are going back to the video game tournament." Cyborg said. Robin arched an eyebrow.

"They just had a murderous assassin attempt an attack there. They're still HOLDING it?"

"Yeah. Actually, each floor was making so much noise that the upper floors didn't even notice the ruckus." Cyborg said. Robin facevaulted.

"Besides, all the evidence is on the bottom floor, not that the cops need it. One thing about the costumed types, they are severely lacking in subtlety."

"So Gar and I are going to go compete in the racing games. We'll be back late tonight. Besides, with the way that room is tricked out, Jinx would need to fuse with the Fang to get out. I think you'll be all right."

"I don't know Vic…" Robin said as Cyborg and Beast Boy got up to leave. "Maybe just…"

"Robin, we can do ok alone." Starfire said.

"But Kory…"

Starfire's hand slid over Robin's.

"We can do ok…alone."

That was enough for even Robin to get, as he grinned slightly.

*************************

"Can we take the T-Car this time?" Beast Boy asked.

"NO! We are not taking my baby anywhere!"

"Then what was the point of building another one?"

"Errrrrrr…."

"Look Vic, maybe you should listen to Noel on this." Beast Boy said as he and Cyborg entered the final room before they hit the staircase that went down to the garage. Through the lone window, the sun was beginning to set. "Build one car for battle, and another for fun. That way, your baby won't get hurt."

"I don't know…"

"Oh don't be so…" Beast Boy trailed off, and then wrapped his arms around him. "Whoa! Did it just get cold in here, or is it just me?"

"It ain't you." Cyborg said. "I'm reading a drop of over twenty degrees."

"In five seconds?"

"The air conditioner must be on the fritz. This new building we built still doesn't have the kinks worked out of it. I'll check it out tomorrow. At the moment I have some fools to school in the fine points of rule. Ing, that is."

"That'll be hard when you'll be staring at my metal tailpipe the whole time."

"You wish!"

The two left the room.

On the window, the sudden temperature change had caused the window to fog over. The last few beams of sunlight shone through it before the sun set.

And then, lines began forming on the condensation. And this wasn't caused by some mechanical malfunction. It was caused by something else…as the lines spelled out a word.

Why… 

And then, Starfire entered the room.

She didn't notice the cold, or the window. Hell, a mime could have been juggling severed heads in the room and she wouldn't have noticed it. She was practically floating, and not via her flight abilities. Finally, she and Tim would have some time alone. And after that mess with her sister, Kory planned to make it up to him. Possibly in every way that was possible.

So Starfire left the room, not noticing anything.

A pity, as in the corner of the room, the temperature suddenly heated up, and then the window abruptly cracked and shattered. But that wasn't the worst thing.

For underneath the sound of the breaking glass was something that almost sounded like a scream.

_Cyborg and Beast Boy have left to have fun, and they have earned it…_

_And back at the tower, Robin and Starfire plan their own fun…but it may not be…_

_Something…_

_…is restless…_

_To be continued…_


	8. Restless: The High Cost Of Living

Chapter 7: The High Cost of Living

Jinx opened her eyes, blinked, and then sat up, rubbing her head.

"Ow…Gizmo you stupid idiot…when I get a hold of you I'm going to stick my foot so far up your ass you'll be able to floss with my boot laces…" Jinx cursed, and then realized she wasn't in the H.I.V.E medical centre. She was in a small room with a high ceiling. It had a bed she was lying on, a small desk with some books, and a small TV. "What the heck…"

"Sleep well?"

The voice seemed to come from the room itself, and Jinx started a bit as she looked around. Then she recognized the voice.

"Robin! What the hell are you trying to pull!" Jinx yelled, holding up her hands.

"You don't want to do that." Robin said.

Jinx began to activate her hex power.

And suddenly the room was filled with loud noises and smoke. Jinx recoiled and coughed, holding her hands over her ears. The noises faded after several seconds, and fans turned on that sucked the smoke away. Jinx continued to cough.

"Tried to warn you. This is our special holding cell Jinx, and it's tricked out with enough sensors to keep working until doomsday. Any attempt to use your powers will get you similar results of what just happened. None of them will hurt you, but all of them will make your life miserable. If, on the other hand, you sit there calmly, we'll get you out by tomorrow and have you a proper jail cell. I hear Iron Heights is particularly nice this time of year." Robin said, looking at Jinx on a monitor. She had stopped coughing, and was looking around. She located the camera, and then promptly gave him the finger before she tried to use her hex powers again.

Six small panels opened in the walls and water sprayed into the room, knocking Jinx off her feet, the wet floor causing her to slide into a wall. She groaned, as drains opened in the floor to drain the water away and fans blew powerful bursts of air to dry the bed off.

"The next time, the water is freezing cold." Robin said. Jinx sighed. She knew when she was beaten. Well, no matter, she could be patient. She went back over to the bed, sat down on it, and turned on the TV. It had cable. How nice.

Robin double-checked all the computers. Everything was working: there would be no need for him to keep an eye on Jinx. Good. Now he could get back to his dinner with Kory.

Robin had removed his mask, gloves, and cape for the dinner, and had splurged from the food budget to bring in some really fancy food. Which Starfire had promptly "ruined" by pouring mustard over. Tim had just laughed though.

"She is ok?" Kory asked as Robin sat back down.

"Yes. We can forget about her." Tim said. He sipped from his wine glass. Though there wasn't any real wine in it. Tim had a strict policy about alcohol. However, the dinner demanded something special, so Tim had gone out, gotten a bottle (how did he buy wine considering he was underage? Let's just say Tim knows which shopkeepers are very grateful for the Teen Titans being around), and then mixed it with water and added grape juice. They would have to drink a hundred glasses of this to get drunk, and it still added a slight touch of class.

"Tim…I have been thinking…about us…" Kory said. "You were willing to disband the Titans after the Final Night. And if we are not a team, I cannot see there being an us. I just want to know…will this happen again? Will the next crisis cause us to fracture?"

"Fracture? After that mess with Warp? No Kory…but you see, the Final Night…it reminded me of how I used to be…back when I first became Robin. Did I ever tell you the whole story about that?"

"You told me the second Robin, Jason, was murdered by the Joker, and that Nightwing, the first Robin, brought you to Batman as a suitable replacement."

"That's it in a nutshell…but it was far more complicated then that…you see…well…let's start at the beginning." Tim said, and began.

"I became Robin by accident, actually. When I was very young, my parents took me to a circus, where we met an acrobatic troupe, the Flying Graysons. There are two things I remember about that night. One was what the young child of the trio, Dick Grayson, did, a quadruple somersault in mid-air. The other thing I remember…was that when Dick was safe on the ground, his parents tried one final trick…and the ropes broke. They fell to their deaths. I later found out acid had been put on the ropes, causing the break. It was a warning to the circus for refusing to pay money for a protection racket."

"Oh…how terrible."

"It was…but that was just the start. You see, about a year later I was watching TV with my parents and a news show came on that had exclusive footage of Batman and Robin in action via a security camera. They were fighting the Penguin, and when the Penguin tried to sneak up on Batman Robin jumped down from the beams below and got him. Remarkable, but even more so was the move that Robin used to do it. It was a quadruple somersault."

Kory raised an eyebrow.

"So…from that you deduced that Robin was Dick Grayson."

"Yes, and from there, I also figured out who was Batman. You'll forgive me if I don't tell you, he is very strict about who his name is given to, even superheroes."

"I understand."

"Once I had that figured out…it was relatively easy to figure out other things. Dick eventually left to become Nightwing, and the second Robin came into play. Then Jason was murdered…and it was about that time that I took action. You see, after Jason died, Batman…changed. He nearly went insane from the grief. I followed him a few times, saw him take incredible abuse, but the next night he'd be back out there as if the injuries never happened. He had a death wish, and I thought I could help. I thought that the way to help him would be to convince Dick to come back and be Robin. To me, that was the key. Batman needed a Robin. A lone vigilante in the night…eventually it will destroy you, no matter how strong you are. And while I managed to talk to Dick, something happened that trapped both him and Batman, and in the heat of the moment, I put on the old Robin costume and went to save him. Batman was actually quite angry at the time, but Dick convinced him to give me a chance…and in the end, I guess Batman liked what he saw, for here I am." Robin said.

"Noel does say that the true mark of a superhero is someone who backed into something much bigger then they expected." Kory said. She didn't add the other thing he had said: that it was almost always much bigger then they could handle.

"I suppose, but that's just backstory to my answer. I didn't plan to be Robin forever. Dick, he had an inkling that one day he would be Batman, but me, no. I figured this would just be…a phase. Then…my parents…you know…"

Kory just nodded. Tim's parents had been world travellers, and shortly after Tim had become Robin they had wound up in the proverbial wrong place at the wrong time, taken hostage by guerrilla fighters in some strife-torn third-world country. Tim's mother had not survived, and Tim's father had come out of it with his back broken and his mind destroyed with fear and pain, locked in a catatonic state. And while Tim's dad had eventually recovered both his sanity and the use of his legs and re-married, the event still gnawed at Tim in the way those kind of events do, screaming that terrible phrase: If Only I Had Done Something.

"At first I went on because of anger, and then out of determination. But those wore off. Like Dick, I started to chaff under Batman's command. So he and I worked something out. Shortly after, the events that brought us together happened. Being part of this team…it gave me another sense of purpose. And then…there was you Kory. It gave me a reason…to keep doing this. I started thinking that maybe, this wasn't a phase. Maybe this was what I was meant to do. But the Final Night…it brought back all my old doubts and fears. So many dead…for such a stupid reason in the end. Many of our critics insinuate that if we weren't here, the villains we battle wouldn't be either. After seeing what the Lord had done, that possibility clawed at me. But when you said that giving up would be worse then going on, you snapped me out of it. You were right. And I'm beginning to really think…this is as well. My future self without you had become the second Nightwing…I think I can even do more. I think that when Batman finally decides he must step aside, I can replace him. I think I can do a lot of good for this world. I think WE can. The Titans…and you and I. There will be a price to pay, I know, but that is life. All decisions come with cost. I'm willing to pay this one…if you are."

"Tim…I'd follow you into a star if you asked me too."

"I know." Tim replied, raising his glass. "To living."

"To it, no matter how high the cost." Kory replied.

The glasses klinked.

And then the lights suddenly turned off.

"What the…" Robin said, but before he could even finish his sentence the lights were back on. Then they were off, then on again a second later, the room flashing crazily. Robin looked up.

"What the heck…"

And then, on the very corner of his eye, he saw something, a fleeting jolt of black, but as he turned his head it vanished.

"TIM!" Kory said, and Tim jerked his head to face back towards his girlfriend. The sudden flashing lights (abet no sounds, heh heh, sorry, in joke) had attracted his attention, as it did Kory's, and the two of them had kept their glasses together.

And suddenly their hands were freezing, as the glasses rapidly fogged over, and then Tim actually saw the liquid inside solidify before both glasses suddenly exploded. Both of the teenagers recoiled from the shrapnel. The cold suddenly faded, and then across the room a door suddenly slammed open. A second later, it slammed shut.

**********************************

Jinx was watching one of her favourite _Friends_ episodes (The One Where No One Is Ready, in case you were curious) on the TV when it suddenly turned off.

"Whatever you're doing Jinx, stop it now!"

Jinx arched an eyebrow. What was she doing? Besides laughing at Matthew Leblanc's lunges anyway?

"Uh…ok?" Jinx said.

"Don't be cute! Just for that, no TV! And be warned, I've turned up the sensitivity of the devices. If you even look at the wall the wrong way, you'll regret it! Next time learn how to behave!"

Robin was gone. Jinx still had no idea what he was talking about.

"Man, you're too anal. You need to get laid, Boy Wonder." Jinx said, as she carefully stepped off the bed, walked a few steps, and sat down. She crossed her legs and began to meditate, while pondering plans to beat the Teen Titans once she was free and back with her friends (Amend that, plans to get the Teen Titans AFTER she kicked Gizmo's ass). For now, she would concentrate on being one with everything.

*****************************

Robin had gone over the entire kitchen with a fine-toothed comb, but he could find no other reason for what had happened. It had to have been some trick of Jinx's. Well, she wouldn't be bothering them any more.

He went over to the couch where Kory was sitting and sat down next to her, taking his mask off again.

"Jinx played dumb, but believe me, she won't be able to even have a dirty thought in that room after how I rigged the devices."

"Tim, I thought her powers were just bad luck. Dropping the glasses would have been bad luck…making them explode…"

"She's a magician, they're good at improvising. Relax Kory. Here, let me help you." Tim said, putting his hands on Kory's back and massaging her tense muscles. Kory closed her eyes and cooed.

"You are very good at this."

"When you study the human body for the sake of combat, you learn everything about it. And while the idea is to learn weak points, you find you also learn…other places to touch…"

Kory leaned back against Tim.

"But…I am not of your species…"

"Kory, for you, I'd take starting courses until my head exploded."

"No need…" Kory said, turning around. "Tim…" and then Kory trailed off in her own language as she kissed him, softly. Tim brought his hand behind her head and deepened it.

Kory leaned back, Tim following, as the kiss grew passionate.

And in the corner of the room, a thermometer registered a rapid temperature change. It wasn't cooling down this time: this time the temperature was going UP. And it wasn't because of the teenagers.

Kory reached down and brought Tim's hand to her shirt. Taking the hint, Tim slipped his hand under. Kory sighed in pleasure. And this was just…

And then the room suddenly grew ice cold, cool enough to even stop their passion in its tracks. Robin's eyes jerked open, and he drew back.

"Tim?" Kory said, and then her own eyes widened as she realized she could see her own breath.

And then the silence was shattered, as the room filled with a heart-rending, soul shredding howl.

*************************

Jinx's eyes snapped open so violently that if she'd been wearing false eyelashes they would have hit the ceiling.

As a sorceress, Jinx had learned many things, and while she specialized in bad luck, she knew enough in other ways of magic that something was VERY wrong.

Had she been sitting and watching television she probably would have just gotten an inkling. But in her heightened state, it was like a bomb going off.

This must have been what Robin had been talking about. But this wasn't her. This was…beyond her. She was mischievous and naughty and maybe even cruel, but this…this was fury, a terrible maelstrom of ferocity that was matched by sadness so deep and cold it could have frozen a star.

Suddenly, the TV flickered on, as an image spasmed and flickered across the screen. It was Rachel from _Friends_, constantly repeating a line.

"He loves me…he loves me not…he loves me…he loves me…NOT…"

Another voice had spoken along with Rachel for the final word.

And then the TV exploded.

Jinx screamed as a wind whipped out of nowhere and the devices in the walls and ceilings flipped open and activated all at once. Jinx was saved from being barraged with water, smoke, gases, and other unpleasantness as the devices almost immediately overloaded, sparks flying as the wind howled.

It sounded so…human.

Jinx backed up until she nowhere left to go, and she fell to her knees, holding her hands over her head as she tried to block out the storm that now raged around her.

The rage.

The hate.

The sorrow.

***********************

The bang exploded through the room, like someone had thrown a car against the wall. But there was no damage to the wall, no hint that anything had struck it.

But the blasts of sound continued, going around the room as Starfire screamed in fear, as Robin tried to put his mask back on and get his mindset changed back to warrior.

"How is Jinx doing this!?!" Starfire asked, and then she screamed as the wall closest to them contorted inward like it was a liquid being sucked up by a straw before it exploded into a thousand shards of wood, plaster, and stone.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" Robin said.

And then the coffee table suddenly flipped up. Starfire and Robin yelped and dodged out of the way as it slammed against the couch where they had just been. But while Starfire had flown up, Robin had gone over to the side of the couch, and no sooner had the table hit it then the heavy piece of furniture flipped up on one end and fell towards Robin. Starfire zipped in and grabbed him up before it slammed down on top of him.

"We must stop her! She is destroying our home!" Starfire said as she set Robin down.

Then a nearby vase flew at them.

"I think our home is the least of our worries!" Robin said as he shattered the vase with a Birdarang. But no sooner had that happened then the Birdarang stopped in mid-air, and then flew back at Robin's face with lethal intent. Starfire blew it out of the air with a Starbolt.

"Kory! We have to…!" Robin was yelling, but then his eyes were drawn to a nearby bookcase on which were several pictures of the Titans. The frames exploded as the pictures burst into flames, and then the shards of glass flew at the two. They dodged, the glass embedding in the wall behind them. And considering how tough the wall was, the glass had to have been thrown with considerable force.

"Kory! We need to run!" Robin yelled. "We can't fight what we can't…"

And then the wall exploded next to Robin. Through the hole came the Titan's main fridge, as the kitchen was just next to the room they were in. Robin shoved Starfire out of the way and snapped his staff out at the last second as the fridge fell on him. It stopped a foot from crushing him, the staff acting as a brace. Robin rolled out from under it and pulled his staff free, but no sooner had he and Starfire run a few steps when the fridge flew up and off the ground, floating in mid-air, and then flying at the two of them like a battering ram. Starfire pulled Robin up and out of the way as the fridge zipped under them and smashed through the wall.

"GO! GO! GO!" Robin yelled, as they landed near an exit. From the hole the fridge had made came flying all the utensils from the kitchen, as well as several appliances. Starfire tried to shut the door only to find it wouldn't close. A swarm of knives flew at Starfire, and she screamed, only to have Robin pull her back. He shoved her behind him as he threw twin explosive discs at each side of the hallway. The discs detonated, and Starfire and Robin ran as rubble rained down in the hallway, stopping the projectiles.

In the room where the Titans had been, the temperature suddenly dropped so low that everything developed a thin coating of frost, and then everything returned to normal.

It had given chase.

******************************

Jinx tried to block out the noise and the cold as she fought to remember some of her older spells, anything to get this presence away from her.

"Ugh…I bind you!" Jinx yelled, drawing a symbol in the air. "I bind you from me and my being! I bind you from doing harm to others and to yourself! I bind you from this building and those who dwell with it! I bind you from your grief and grant you release for your rage…"

A horrid shriek suddenly split the air, too much even for Jinx to handle, and she covered her ears and wailed.

"I BIND YOU AWAY! BE GONE! BEGONE!!!!!!!!!!"

The books on the desk suddenly opened and then shredded, the pages ripping out and flying through the air as the wind caught and propelled them. As Jinx watched, the pages suddenly burst into flame. Jinx got on her feet and tried to press herself even further into the corner, willing and wishing the wall to do the impossible and absorb her as the pages and their burning friends blew through the room, blowing over to Jinx. Jinx's eyes filled with terror as the burnt pages being blown by the wind suddenly formed into a shape before her, a human shape.

And then, it spoke.

"That might have worked if you had a pure, unselfish heart." It said. "But you doooonnnn'tttt…"

And the paper surged forward.

Jinx's scream rang through the whole building.

****************************

Robin stopped in his tracks as he heard the wail. Starfire stopped with him,

"Robin…was that…?"

"I don't know, but I damn sure am going to get some answers. Like how we can hear a scream through a SOUNDPROOFED ROOM!" Robin said, and ran forward, Starfire at his heels.

They came to the hallway outside of Jinx's cell, which was locked by a tall door that was composed of three feet of solid titanium. The walls were made of material that was just as strong as the metal. Robin stared at the door.

Another scream suddenly rang through the hallway. It was coming from inside the room. Somehow, he could still hear it, as he recoiled. Then his eyes drifted over to the guardroom, the room where he could communicate with Jinx and, more importantly, see what was going on.

He ran into the room, Starfire with him, looking at the monitors. But all they were showing were static: the cameras were down.

Except one. It was at a crazy angle, and Robin could hardly make anything out.

Apart from an arm. Jinx's arm. It was in the picture, the rest of her body off camera, and it was shaking as if a wild animal was attacking Jinx and ripping her guts out. More screams, as the arm thrashed, spasmed up, and then fell limp to the ground.

Then, after a second, it slid off camera. Then the view went to static.

Robin felt a chill run through him. It wasn't Jinx doing this.

"Robin…" Starfire said, reading his mind, it seemed. "What is it?"

"Something bad. Something VERY VERY bad." Robin said, as he turned and ran past Starfire, going back into the hall.

And stopped. He was at a loss. What should he do? Should he open the door and help Jinx? What if she was already dead? Should he call the others? Retreat from the building?

Make a stand right here?

Starfire joined him. Robin looked and her, and decided to hell with it. He wasn't going to risk Kory's life over some faceless, malevolent force…

The door exploded off its hinges, the wall bursting around it and pelting Robin and Starfire with shrapnel as Starfire screamed again. Robin snapped out his staff and stepped in front of her as the door, warped and deformed, clanged down in front of him.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then, a figure walked from inside the room, smoking obscuring it at first, and then Jinx stepped from inside the room.

"…….Titansssss…." she said. But this wasn't Jinx's voice. It was someone else's. "Robin and Starfire. Tim Drake and Kory Anders. Two different beings that are yet one and the same…so close…so…happy…"

And then "Jinx" threw her head back and screamed. The walls around them warped, and the floor erupted towards Robin and Starfire. The two leapt over it and landed on the wreckage as bits and pieces of metal shrapnel were pulled loose from the door, floating around "Jinx".

"I never did anything to deserve this…why are you happy and I…all I ever knew…NO MORE! NO MOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" "Jinx" howled.

"Robin…look at her eyes!" Starfire said, pointing. Robin did. Saw how Jinx's pupils were now whitish and milky, almost as if she were…

…blind…

And suddenly, Robin knew.

"Murdercrow." Robin said.

"Jinx" smiled, a twisted grin. Except it wasn't Jinx at all, it was Murdercrow, the blind tormented girl who had joined with and loved the Lord of the Night, only to have him betray her and use her life blood as a key to his ascent to godhood, tossing Murdercrow aside like she was garbage.

But the girl was back in town, and she was pulling the strings now. And it looked like she had some…issues.

"You two lovebirds did a toast to life…you want to see the highest cost of living?" Murdercrow snarled. "DEATH!"

And the metal shards flew.

To Be Continued.


	9. Restless: I've Got You Under My Skin

Chapter 8: I've Got You Under My Skin

The wall exploded outward, and a tumbling Robin and Starfire flew into the gym, going two-thirds of the way across the room.

Robin was trying to gather his thoughts, but situations like this just weren't conditioned for logic. Not only was Murdercrow back, her ghost or her spirit or her essence or SOMETHING possessing Jinx, but she also seemed to have brought some new powers back with her.

Which was REALLY bothering him. Murdercrow had possessed superhuman senses to make up for her blindness. That, and she was good with a pair of tasers. That was it. Apparently the gods in charge for making the Titans miserable had decided that wasn't enough. After barely avoiding getting torn to shreds by the shards of flying metal, Robin had attempted to counter-attack, only to have the floor literally collapse under him. When Starfire had flown to avoid it, the CEILING had collapsed on her, causing her to fall as well.

The next room had gotten worse, as Starfire has no sooner made her way out from the rubble then Murdercrow had floated down. Then she had fired a hex blast. Only this wasn't a normal small pink blast, this was a big-ass kamehameha-esque blast, one that had only detonated in FRONT of Robin and Starfire, throwing them through the wall they had just taken their oh so pleasant (not) trip through.

All this from a girl who had only been a good martial artist with special talents to compensate for her lack of sight. Something wasn't adding up. And Robin found he really didn't have the time to figure it out. Right now he had to…

Do what, exactly? Take out Jinx? Would that work?

Robin didn't have time for any more pondering, as Murdercrow made her way into the room. She hadn't spoken or even made a sound since she had thrown the metal shrapnel at them, but her eyes had remained locked onto them with a cold, merciless fury.

Then Starfire was in front of him.

"Murdercrow, we don't have to fight! We understand! You were tricked! You…"

"SHUT UP AND DIE!" Murdercrow screamed, firing another supercharged hex blast at Starfire. Starfire dodged, and getting the hint that talking sense wasn't going to work, retaliated with twin Starbolts. But Murdercrow waved her arm and the floor literally ripped up in front of her, taking the blasts. Robin leapt up and hurled some Birdarangs, and then remembered the hard way that that was a bad idea, as they turned around and flew back at him. He knocked one out of the air but the other slammed into his right shoulder, the armour in his outfit not doing much to deflect the impact. He fell to one knee, trying to focus past the pain.

Only to find the floor was red-hot. He yelped and recoiled, and then his back hit the edge of the boxing/wrestling ring that some of the Titans trained in. Whose ropes suddenly snapped off and wrapped around his throat, yanking him up. His air cut off and his body dangling, Robin kicked and thrashed.

Murdercrow just watched him hang.

Which kept her from seeing Starfire until she punched, hitting Murdercrow with a powerful blow that could have broken Jinx's neck. Murdercrow barely seemed to notice, her head turning back to look at Starfire, before she backhanded the girl across the room and through the wall.

She turned back to Robin, but her concentration had been broken, and Robin had freed himself and was rushing at her. "Jinx's" face twisted in fury.

"Why WON'T YOU DIE!?!" Murdercrow screamed, and then the floor lifted up below Robin's feet even as the ceiling warped down, trying to crush the Teen Wonder. He dived forward at the last minute, the two pieces slamming together behind him like a deadly vise, and then he spun and slashed his staff at Murdercrow.

Murdercrow blocked it with her arm, as Robin spun, landed, and lashed out with a roundhouse kick. That was also blocked. Robin followed with some punches, which Murdercrow blocked as well, with the indication that all he was doing was making her angry.

Which was shown when she ducked under his last punch and thrust her leg out, smashing Robin across the room. By some odd coincidence, he went through the same hole that Starfire had gone through.

"Robin!" Starfire said, flying to his side. "Are you ok?"

"For the most part, yes, but this isn't working! We have to get out of here! She's too strong!"

"Robin, I tried to call the others! All I got was static!"

"Why am I not surprised-YEEK!" Robin gasped as he ducked, a four-pound barbell burying itself in the wall where his head had been a second earlier. Starfire grabbed Robin and yanked him aside as the barbell's brothers and sisters followed, smashing the wall into pieces.

"Robin, this makes no sense! We did not kill Murdercrow! The Lord did! There was nothing we could have done to prevent her death! We were supposed to be tied up and helpless!"

"Somehow, I think she doesn't care about that little detail." Robin said, as Murdercrow floated through the hole, glaring her namesake (less the actual bird, of course) at the two.

"It figures. I could throw one of you into hell and the other into oblivion and you'd still somehow find each other. YOU MAKE ME SICK!" Murdercrow screamed, and fired a super-hex blast at the two. Starfire countered it with a Starbolt, and the explosion blew the couple backwards through another door.

"There's no escape Titans! Your blood is going to stain my grave sooner or later!" Murdercrow said, yanking the weights from the wall and hurling them at the open door. Starfire brought up her hands to blast them.

Except the weights never made it to them. They bounced off…something. It was as if an invisible barrier was in front of the door.

Murdercrow looked just as surprised as Robin and Starfire were.

"What in the depths of Hades…" she growled, floating over to the open door and reaching out. When her hand reached out, black sparks flew from thin air, making her recoil.

"A protection spell? How did THIS get here?" Murdercrow cursed, as she reared back and slammed her fist into it. All she got was another storm of black sparks and a pulse that made her recoil.

"What happened?" Robin asked.

"Robin, look where we are." Starfire said. Robin finally took in the gloomy surroundings. They were in Raven's room.

"That sorceress must have thrown this in place a while ago. BUT IT WON'T KEEP ME OUT FOREVER!" Murdercrow yelled, and began banging on the invisible barrier that separated her from her prey.

******************

Far away, Raven jerked away from what she was doing as the rough equivalent of a silent alarm went off in her head.

Something was attacking the warding spells around her room. Originally placed there to help deal with her father, she had never removed them after his defeat. And it looked like that was a good thing, as something ELSE was attacking them. A great dark power, from the pressure she felt.

"What's wrong?" Noel asked, annoyed that his moment had been interrupted. Raven had come to see HIM, and after finally dragging her away from all the other metahumans that were attending this conference and getting her up to his room (I know what you're thinking, Noel had no intention of trying that! Unless RAVEN wanted to as well). But no sooner had the two started getting intimate (not THAT way! Get your mind out of the bloody gutter!) when she had pulled away.

"Something's wrong."

"What?"

"…The Tower…my god…" Raven said. Now that it had her attention, Raven could finally see what was going on in her home. And it scared her. "Something…incredible rage…"

"Well then, let's go!" Noel said, hopping off the bed and pulling his jacket on with the Shimmer. He stepped up to Raven, who prepared to teleport the two of them.

Going such a long distance, however, required a great deal of concentration.

Which could be detected.

************************

Murdercrow stopped her pounding as an eyebrow arched, and then a hideous grin split her face.

"I don't think so sorceress!" Murdercrow said, as she reached up and then slammed her palms down.

**************************

Raven screamed as she and Noel were suddenly torn apart, tossed into the walls of the hotel room.

"Raven! Are you ok?" Noel said, running back over to her as Raven clutched her head.

"Worse then I thought…whatever's done this has erected a barrier around our home…I can't teleport directly there. I'll have to do a whole bunch of small transfers."

"You think we can get there in time?"

"No. You can't go Noel."

"Why?"

"Making a repeated series of jumps is taxing, but if I bring you along, I'll be exhausted before we get two-thirds of the way there. I have to go alone."

"If you say so." Noel said, looking concerned.

Raven wished she could have kissed him goodbye, but she didn't have the time. Within a second, she was gone into the darkness.

Noel sighed and figured he had better take a cold shower. He hoped his friends would be all right. And his girlfriend.

****************************

"Only a matter of time!" Murdercrow said, as she continued banging on the barrier.

"Murdercrow, stop! This won't change anything!"

"You little bitch! THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!" Murdercrow shrieked, spittle flying from her mouth. Starfire recoiled at the sheer venom in the tone. Murdercrow went back to banging on the barrier, and it appeared her efforts weren't in vain: cracks had begun to appear, seemingly floating in mid-air.

"Robin…what can we do?" Starfire said, as the cracks widened.

"Not sure. Fighting her isn't working…maybe we should…" Robin said, and whispered something to Starfire. She nodded.

And then the barrier shattered.

"NOW YOU DIE!" Murdercrow yelled.

And then Starfire grabbed Robin and flew straight up, crashing through the ceiling with her shoulders. Murdercrow looked after them. 

"Oh NO YOU DON'T."

Starfire flew up through the next room and through that ceiling, and then the room and ceiling above that. But as she hit the second highest floor, the ceiling above her suddenly erupted in flames. She stopped with a shriek of surprise.

"GO FOR THE WINDOW!" Robin yelled, and Starfire changed direction and blasted towards the glass. But two feet from it, metal shutters suddenly slammed down in front of them, sealing their escape. A second later, the floor exploded nearby, bringing Murdercrow up on a platform of wreckage.

"Trying to run, are we? This is my building now Titans. My grave. It's mine to command! And you're not leaving. You're joining me."

Trapped, Robin and Starfire looked at each other, and then they turned to face Murdercrow, staff ready and Starbolts charged.

"Ahhhhh…now you begin to despair, and are ready to discard moral codes in order to survive, or to ensure the other does." Murdercrow said. "Go ahead! Try and kill me! I'm already DEAD! All you'll do is kill my vessel, and if you do, I'll just possess another. Yesss…indeed. Go ahead, kill her! Killing you in your lover's guise will be oh so delicious." 

Robin didn't know which one of them was talking to, and didn't care. His knuckles were white under his gloves.

"Come on. I'm waiting." Murdercrow said.

Robin kept his pose, and then he dropped his staff.

"I won't fight you. There's no point." Robin said. Murdercrow suddenly looked very angry.

"NO POINT!?!?!??!?!"

Robin suddenly found himself being lifted up in the air. Starfire gasped as Murdercrow pulled him to her.

"You don't get it. You think this has a point? That you can break it down into POINTS? You think this is about revenge? Jealousy? The idea that this will somehow change the hell that was my life and death? No Robin. Nothing will change it. Nothing will change what my parents, and all those others, did to me. Nothing will change how I felt towards him, and how he reciprocated with a blade between my ribs! NO! MY WHOLE LIFE WAS PAIN! EVERYTHING AFTER WAS PAIN! NO MORE! I DON'T CARE ANY MORE! YOU WILL SUFFER BECAUSE _I SAY YOU SUFFER! **YOU DIE BECAUSE IT'S MY WHIM! NOW DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**_

And Murdercrow hurled Robin back at the closed window, the shutter snapping open just before Robin hit the glass and went through, into the empty air, as the shutter slammed closed again.

Murdercrow looked over at a horrified Starfire.

"They say love conquers all. Think it can go through sixteen inches of solid steel?"

Starfire's eyes blazed green.

"IT WON'T HAVE TO."

And Starfire flew up, turned at a sharp angle and went crashing back through the floor. With a howl of fury, Murdercrow commanded the windows to seal shut on the floor below her, but Starfire went past them, through the floor again, and then out through the glass of the below windows just as the shutters slammed shut on her heels.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and as Robin had gone out and down Starfire had gone in only one direction.

And hence she managed to get below him and put on the brakes before he hit the ground, the two of them slamming into the hard earth together, knocking the wind out of both of them.

Groggy, Robin opened his eyes as his vision cleared, looking down at Starfire.

"Uhhhhh…is this heaven?"

Despite the situation, Starfire grinned.

"Not yet."

And then shock filled her face. Robin took that as all the cue he needed and rolled to the side as a storm of debris came crashing back down where they had lain. Starfire grabbed Robin and they flew up again.

The windows in front of them exploded, spraying a shower of glass shards at them. Only Starfire's great speed saved them from being cut to ribbons, as they flew up to the Tower's roof.

"Get us over the water! We need to get away…!" Robin yelled.

Too late, as Murdercrow's most horrifying manipulation came into play: one of the prongs that formed the T of the Tower suddenly grew liquid, as if it had become a living thing, and curled back to slam against Robin and Starfire. The two teenagers fell, hitting the Tower's rooftop and bouncing along it.

"No…escape…nooooooo…escaaaappppeeeee…" the wind howled.

The other T prong folded up the two merged together, the Tower now in the shape of a magnifying glass. The ground rippled under Robin and Starfire as the newly merged prongs morphed and opened, forming a staircase that Murdercrow stepped out onto.

"There's nowhere to go you two. You let the Lord murder me. Then you defiled my grave with your hormonal games. Well, it ends. I refuse to be defiled and tormented any more. It's time for me to start causing the pain. Hell, I'VE EARNED IT. MY WHOLE LIFE AND DEATH HAVE BEEN PAIN."

Murdercrow raised one hand, as flaming debris, shards of rock and steel, twisting wires and ice so cold it instantly froze the moisture in the air around it floated up around Murdercrow.

"AS. WILL. YOURS."

Murdercrow hurled her debris at the couple.

Which was blocked by a black shield that appeared over the two.

"WHAT?" Murdercrow yelled, and then a black claw of energy slashed out, slamming her to the ground. Hissing, she leapt to her feet.

Raven floated down, hood up and hand enveloped in black energy.

"Very nice trick, keeping me from getting here. But you, as anyone should know, Murdercrow, that wherever there's a will there's a way."

"I will their deaths." Murdercrow said.

"I know." Raven replied. "But the only way you're getting to them…IS THROUGH ME."

Murdercrow laughed.

"As you wish."

And then she threw the girder at Raven.

To Be Continued


	10. Restless: A Kindness of Ravens

Chapter 9: A Kindness of Ravens

*****************************

_A murder of crows_: A special term used to exclusively denote a group of crows.

_An unkindness of ravens_: A special term used to exclusively denote a group of ravens.

******************************

The girder, as well as being thrown at great speed, had had its ended twisted in such a way so that it formed a crude spear. Anyone getting run through by it would have had a highly unpleasant death.

So it is a good thing that Raven disappeared into the shadows of her teleportation ability, the girder flying through where she had been, as she reappeared next to Murdercrow.

"…ZINTHOS!" she yelled as she appeared, and Murdercrow flew backwards, smashing into one of the warped prongs. With a scream, she hurled all the broken glass from her impact at Raven, but Raven threw up a black energy shield around herself, and the glass deflected.

"You can't stop me. MY GRAVE WILL BECOME YOURS!" Murdercrow screamed, as the tower beneath Raven cracked and she fell in. The crack slammed shut, smashing anything in it into pulp.

Which wasn't Raven, as a dark portal opened up behind Murdercrow. But the look on her face showed that she had seen it coming, as she turned and fired a super hex blast.

Which went right through the misty black energy that had been in Raven's shape. As Murdercrow gasped, Raven once again appeared out of the shadows beihind Murdercrow, and as the tormented and angry spirit in Jinx's body turned around, Raven clamped her hand over her face.

"Azarath Tgroliki Rbhul Worgh!"

A bright flash of light ignited on Murdercrow's face, as she screamed and stumbled back. Raven flew over to where Robin and Starfire were getting up, and with a gesture, teleported them away.

"What was that…" Robin muttered, still not quite 100% as the trio emerged in the garage.

"Spell that'll disrupt her a bit. She won't be able to immediately tell what floor we're on. Give us a little time."

"Ohhhh…no _Yuoter_, I don't want to do _Cziloik_ routines today…" Starfire mumbled. "What? OH! MURDER-!"

"Quiet, she might be able to hear you." Raven said. "Ok, let me guess. She wants to kill you."

"How astute."

"Don't be a smart-ass Robin."

"Raven, I do not understand! She blames us for her death! And she's so powerful now! Why?"

"You want the former or the latter?"

Starfire stared.

"In order." Robin said.

"That's relatively simple. Pain, fear, betrayal, they very easily become anger. Murdercrow, from what we do now, was treated atrociously her whole life, and her supposed savior, the Lord, provided the deepest betrayal of all: he tricked her into loving him and then killed her in cold blood. Murdercrow's torment must have been so great her soul couldn't rest. It must have lingered here when the Tower was rebuilt, watching, suffering…until something touched it off. I think I know what." Raven said, looking at the two. Robin looked indignant.

"Now see here…"

"Save it Leader Boy, that's your private life, I don't care."

"But why us? Why not you and Noel?"

"Could be a lot of reasons. Dark forces like these have varying factors. Right alignment of stars, certain date, hell, the way you got out of bed this morning. Whatever the trigger, you two were a part of it. Murdercrow had apparently decided that to hell with it: she knew no peace in life, and death didn't bring it either, so she'll make sure none of us have any as well. She exists to destroy us now. It's all that's keeping her around. A tragedy, pretty much par for the course in her life." Raven said. Her tone was cold, but it had to be. You can feel sorry for certain things all you want, but in the end sometimes one had to think of one's own survival. To think of the other in a personal time of crisis is either the mark of a highly enlightened individual or a fool. Nine times out of ten, it was the latter.

"But…her power…!"

"That is due to the circumstances. She's right. She died here, and her body got destroyed when the Lord blew the tower up. This IS her grave. She's been here during the entire rebuilding process. The whole building's absorbed her sorrow and rage. It's acting as a giant power conductor, a near limitless battery she can tap, AND manipulate. It explains how she was able to pretty much will the Tower to do anything she asked. For the moment, she's pretty much invincible. We can't fight her because she's just using Jinx as a vessel. And if I try an exorcism spell she'll know, and while I might be able to pull it off…well, she could do a number of EXTRAORDINARILY nasty things as a swan song. No, we need another plan. BUT, some luck. I think I have it…"

Raven trailed off, and then she reached up as her hands glowed dark purple. The whole roof glowed, and then a second later a loud banging noise rang through the garage, followed by a scream of terrible anger.

"She's found us. Ok you two, here's what I want you to do. I'm going to distract her and let you get away. GO! I need you to go and find Gar! Bring him back here ASAP! Not Victor, JUST GAR! Don't ask why, just do it! Drop him off here and stay back. You'll know if it's safe to approach. And if it isn't… well, if I blow it, you better call Jason Blood. Or maybe Dr. Fate."

The scream grew louder, and the roof began to shift in through Raven's shield. Beads of sweat ran down Raven's face.

"Ok, in ten seconds the door to your right will open! Behind it is an open window. Go out, and GO! Don't question me! Do it!"

Robin looked at Starfire, and then both nodded and ran.

Raven dropped the barrier.

The whole roof tore open as Murdercrow dropped down, saying hello with a pair of super-charged hex blasts. Chanting, Raven floated up and levitated two cars in front of the blast, and then disappeared as the vehicles exploded.

The door slammed open, and Robin and Starfire ran through it. As Raven has said, there was a window. A Starbolt blew it open, and a few seconds later Starfire, carrying Robin, were off, zipping across the ocean, leaving their warped and corrupted home behind.

*************************

Raven materialized in a certain room, and immediately appreciated the irony. The room was Cyborg and Beast Boy's "special" work out room, where they could utilize special exercises whose constructs would have gotten in the way in the main gym. But if you matched up its position with that of the old Tower, it was the exact room where the Lord had tortured the Titans, mutilating them for parts in his ritual to become a god. Only Raven had escaped his touch, and she was grateful for it.

She closed her eyes, feeling it. Feeling the taint that Murdercrow had poisoned the T-Tower with, the emotions so strong that even death could not end them.

"The Lord is dead." She said.

There was no one in the room, but Raven knew she was heard.

"He died the very night of his ascension. Our hands destroyed him. We cannot undo what he did, to you and to many others. But he is gone. He will never harm anyone ever again. And in the end Murdercrow, I don't think you want to take his place."

The room exploded.

Well, not technically. Not in a combustion sense. No, what happened was that the quiet room immediately erupted in the most vicious, bitter wind that had been called yet. On the wind came the noise, worse then the previous screams, like thousands of souls being tormented in hell. The floor grew soft beneath Raven's feet, and she could feel Murdercrow's hatred, pressing in on her like a living thing. But she stood tall, and stood strong.

"I know it! You know it!"

**_"YOU KNOW NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_**

A gigantic barbell, weighing at least 300 pounds, floated up and flew at Raven. Raven waved her hand, forming a black shield in its wake. The barbell slammed into it, and Raven staggered, but she stayed up. Next, several bars floated up and lanced at Raven, but a few quick dodges and shields kept her safe. Next, the nearby ground erupted in flames and blasted at Raven in a stream, but she stared at it, willing it with all her power. The flames extinguished a foot from her.

"I-**_WILL_**-KILL-YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Murdercrow exploded through the wall, but she was no longer just Jinx. Parts of stone clung to her face and air. Metal rods ran up her arms and legs. Her chest and body were covered with strange pieces: parts of clothes, posters, and furniture, even food. Now more then ever, Murdercrow was united with the T-Tower, her grave, and the instrument that she would use to wreck her revenge on all she felt deserved it. Which was pretty much everyone.

She slashed at Raven with her palm, the rods heating red-hot. Raven ducked, feeling the heat burn a hole in her cloak, and kicked Murdercrow in the gut combined with a blast of telekinesis. Murdercrow flew back, and then with a scream, shattered all the mirrors in the room and hurled them at Raven. Raven didn't throw up a shield: instead she reached out, overrode Murdercrow's control of the shards, and threw them right back at her.

Jinx was slashed up bad, but Murdercrow didn't give a damn about the condition of her host, as long as it could fire hex blasts, which Murdercrow did. The blast sent Raven crashing up against a heavy weight machine, which then tipped over her. A blast of black energy threw it away, and Raven warped away and re-appeared, kicking Murdercrow in the face. But Murdercrow reached up, and the metal part on her arm extended and wrapped around Raven's ankle. Murdercrow threw Raven to the ground, and Raven jerked her head to the side as Murdercrow buried the other piece of rebar where her head had just been. A blast of black power kept Murdercrow from delivering another stab.

"You're just like them. Flirting and kissing your little boytoy. He even let you feel emotions. WHAT DID YOU DESERVE TO EARN THAT? WHY NOT ME? I HATE YOU! **_I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_** Murdercrow screamed, and charged headlong at Raven.

Raven stood still, muttering under her breath.

"NOW DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Murdercrow fired a hex blast.

And Raven did a Matrix-esque dodge, leaning back and letting the blast fly over her head, and then snapping back up as Murdercrow, still charging forward, came in close.

Raven snapped out her hand, grabbing Murdercrow's face.

"Eerf Xnijs Dnim Emssessop!!!!!!!!!!!!" Raven said, as she locked eyes with Murdercrow.

Murdercrow screamed, as black energy from her and Raven's body exploded outward, blowing everything nearby away.

Murdercrow's scream continued…and then slowly her voice became Jinx's as a strand of fire flew from Jinx's features and into Raven's. With a loud bang, it ended, as Raven stumbled back and Jinx collapsed. Though no one would ever know except Raven, her wounds were now gone. Raven had woven a healing spell into her incantation. Jinx should not suffer for another's sins, no matter her own.

Raven stood for a bit, her hands covering her face, and then she removed them.

Her eyes were milky and white.

"Thanks. That one was getting burned out."

******************************

Beast Boy really had no idea what to do.

Robin and Starfire, looking like they'd been through a war, had popped out of nowhere at the competition, grabbing him and whisking him away before he could even react, much less complain. Then they had given him some wild story about Murdercrow being back and having united with the Tower and that Raven needed him, and THEN they had dropped him off and told him to go into the Tower. When he had tried to ask questions, Robin had repeated that it was what Raben wanted and told him to go in again in his Official Leader Voice ™.

And so here he was, wandering through the wrecked tower. And it was a MESS. Holes everywhere, nothing still standing, and a general bad vibe to the whole place. No wonder Tim and Kory had been so rattled. Beast Boy wondered what condition his room was in. He doubted it could get any MESSIER, so…

Then he heard the voice. And since he didn't know any better, he followed it.

*************************

"Yes…Jinx's body can only do so much…but with this…" Murdercrow said, looking at her new hand. "With this, I can really do some damage."

Murdercrow took a step.

And then stopped, as if her leg were glued to the floor, and for a moment the milkiness faded, replaced by Raven's clear eyes.

"Yes you could. But you won't. Because you really don't want too."

"Oh please Raven! Don't try this nonsense with your last bit of strength!" Murdercrow said, taking control again. "Believe me, I know what I want."

"No."

The look on Raven's face was certainly unique, as it went from Raven stating the word to Murdercrow looking both confused at the word and the fact that Raven had taken control again, and then back to Raven.

"Death, destruction, and blood…that's what the Lord wanted. That's never what you wanted. It's all you ever received. To you it was like poison."

"NO NO NO! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"I know what you want Murdercrow."

And it was at this point that Beast Boy walked in. And even forewarned, he was still confused, as he saw Jinx on the floor and Raven apparently having a conversation with herself. Then he realized she must have been possessed by Murdercrow. He wondered if he should run away, but as he watched for a few more seconds, he could see that control was going back and forth. Knowing Raven needed concentration, he just carefully walked around her, ready for anything.

"You wanted someone to love you."

"Nooooooo…" 

"It was all you ever wanted, because it was what you were always denied. Death, destruction, murder, revenge? That's everything that caused your terrible life. All you ever wanted was love. You claim you do this because it is what you are now? No. It's what you are because you never got what you wanted. Admit it."

"Nooo…hate you…hate your love…want…love…all I ever wanted…never given…always hurt…always abused…why…just…wanted…to be loved…"

"I know…I know…" Raven said. Beast Boy had checked on Jinx, and was about to walk away when Raven was suddenly beside him. "Believe me…" she said as she pulled him up. Beast Boy stood there, not sure what to say or to do.

"Love…" Raven said, as she closed her eyes and imagined, and then she leaned down and kissed Beast Boy.

************************

Robin had stayed at the Tower while Starfire had flown back to get Cyborg. She had set him down, and Robin had begun answering Cyborg's first question when the entire T-Tower exploded in white light.

"GAH!" Cyborg yelped.

"I'll take that as a signal. Titans, GO!" Robin ordered, and the group ran forward.

*************************

For a moment he was in total shock. It was funny how things you thought about for a long time are always so much more intense in reality, and when Raven reached down and kissed him, it was like that.

But he had enough sense to return it.

For a seven second period, it was among the best of Gar Logan's life.

Then Raven broke away as she and Murdercrow screamed in unison, and then for a bit all there was was white.

It faded, and Beast Boy blinked, and then he looked at Raven, who looked tired. Then she turned to look at something else, and Beast Boy followed her gaze.

Some distance away…it looked mostly like black smoke. But it was in a human shape…Murdercrow, as she had been before she had been murdered. She lay on the floor, weeping quietly.

"It's done." Raven said quietly.

"What is?"

"She needed to see the lie behind her continued existence. For her peace, and ours. And you made it all possible Gar. Thank you."

"Uh…" Beast Boy, still not sure what had gone on, except that…Raven had kissed him. What does…

"Guys?"

And then the others were there, and any questions were forgotten as they looked at Murdercrow, the tormented soul, as she slowly began to fade away.

"May you find peace where you go…child." Raven said. Murdercrow's weeping faded a bit, as she looked at her hand as it slowly dissolved in black smoke. She chuckled bitterly.

"I doubt it. I've sinned too much to go to heaven…and hell…hell can't be any worse then this. There may be no escape. Maybe I'm already in hell…"

"No Murdercrow. You've earned your peace. I think, in some way, you will find it." Raven said.

"Yes. You have earned it. Just like the monster who did this to you earned the hell he is surely burning in." Starfire said.

There wasn't enough left of Murdercrow's face to really make out the expression, but Raven made it out well enough, and the strangeness of it made her suddenly uneasy: it was PITY.

"Hell…oh no Titans…for all you claim I don't understand, I know something you cannot seem to grasp…" Murdercrow said. "What the Lord did…and what he did to me to accomplish it…you don't get it. The Lord became something else entirely. Something beyond your ability to understand, even as much as you claim you do? Hell? Death? Silly Titans…the Lord is BEYOND death. You can't kill something like it! Like him."

To say the Titans were shocked was an understatement. Of all the last things Raven had expected Murdercrow to say, this was NOT one of them.

"Maybe I go to heaven, or hell, or oblivion, or reincarnation…who knows. Maybe this destruction isn't what I really wanted. But you Titans…Titans…there will come a reckoning…and I do not think you will survive this one…ho no…I don't think you'll even see it coming…perhaps it would have been better if I had gone on believing the lie…"

Murdercrow was gone. But she said one last thing.

"Because what I would have done will be NOTHING compared to what IT will do."

*************************

"Jinx is gone." Robin said.

"Let her go. After what just happened, I'd say that's punishment enough." Cyborg said. The sorceress must have slipped out during the final words of Murdercrow.

And that poor girl? The light had been more then an expression of her realization of her true desire, one she had felt through Raven, who had pretended Beast Boy was Noel, and Beast Boy, who let himself be lost in the dream that Raven had changed her mind and chosen him. The entire Tower was back to normal. All the damage was gone. When Robin had again puzzled how this was possible, Raven had just said "What defined the damage no longer existed. Therefore, neither did it." Robin had tried to figure THAT out for two minutes and then given up and accepted it.

Raven had also performed an exorcism ritual, and had revealed that there wasn't a single trace left of Murdercrow. She was gone for good, hopefully to happiness, or at least, peace.

And for her last problem, she had planned to explain to Beast Boy why had to do what she had done. Had Noel been in range, she would have used him, but she couldn't. And she needed someone who could reciprocate her feelings, even though it would just be a cruel tease. She still loved Noel, not Gar, and she had a feeling he would be hurt.

Except she'd underestimated Garfield Logan. For when she'd gone to explain, she had just said three words when he put up a hand and said "I know." He was smarter then she gave him credit for. She hoped that some day he'd find a girl whom could make him forget what she had done. He deserved it.

**********************

And before we close the curtain on this little tale, let us go into this alleyway near the docks of Jump City, where we find a wet and bedraggled Jinx stumbling along, sniffing as if on the verge of crying, trying to sort her way through what she had felt when possessed by Murdercrow, the terrible grief and pain, beyond anything she had ever felt.

We'll understand better then Gizmo and Mammoth, who show up at the end of the alleyway, having finally found Jinx down via the tracking mechanism built into her shoes. How Gizmo's own unique congratulation of "getting away from those snoteaters" doesn't even get to the forth word as Jinx runs forward and envelops him in a hug, crying hysterically. You thought the Titans were confused before? Mammoth and Gizmo's reaction outdoes them in spades.

Perhaps in time, Jinx will explain why, but for now, she'd just glad she's back with her friends. For they are her friends. They watch her back and, each in their own way, care about her. Unlike Murdercrow, who never got anything but the world's shit.

Compared to her, Jinx feels like the luckiest girl on the planet. And while she will eventually recover from this, and probably not learn anything, and she and her friends, who make the Troika, will go back to causing trouble for people and Titans alike…let's just leave them together for now, as Mammoth squats, putting his large hand on Jinx's shoulder, managing to find gentleness in his frame, and Gizmo, having extracted himself from Jinx's death grip, actually putting his immaturity aside to try and comfort Jinx as well.

And so we leave them.

**************************

And we are back to the Titans, as they sit in their lounge, not doing anything except looking at each other. Starfire is with Robin, partly dozing on his shoulder, and Raven is sitting between Beast Boy and Cyborg, who everyone has finally noticed has a small trophy.

"Fifth place out of a field of nearly one hundred. Gar came in 14th." Cyborg says, talking about his experiences in the racing tournament.

"Well done Vic." Tim says.

"You know, I was just thinking…man, Noel actually drew a GOOD assignment. He's missed all this trouble." Gar said.

"Fate moves in mysterious ways." Raven says.

And so the Titans sit there for a bit, all of them trying to work up the courage, and all failing, to ask the one thing that needs to be said.

Was Murdercrow right?

In the end, none do. They all rationalize. The Lord had to be dead. He wasn't stabbed through the heart, or even decapitated. He had disintegrated into nothing. He had to be gone, never coming back.

Much…like Murdercrow should have been.

And so we leave the Titans, going out through a window that is no longer broken, looking at a Tower that is now shining and pristine, as we go out and through Jump City. It is a lovely night.

Yet…not so lovely…for we are left with one question.

When does darkness mean the absence of light?

And when does it mean…the essence of evil?

And as we look at Jump City, and the T-Tower, and we see just how many shadows the lights cast, we all find our own answers, things that let us keep living.

And most of us probably never hear it.

And the rest think it was just a trick of their ears.

The sound that seems to be coming from the deepest, darkest shadows.

The sound that sounds like…chuckling.


	11. Interlude: While You Were Out

Interlude: While You Were Out…

This isn't a story chapter. Rather, this is to fill you in on the events that took place between the Restless arc and the upcoming Mini-Arc, which is called "Bad Mama". And since they don't really deserve their own story, I'll just tell you. This is what happened between the Restless arc and the arc after this.

-The events of Time and Time Again. Originally, this would have been where Time actually happened: a six-part arc within Wings of the Eagles. But I liked the idea so much I wrote it down first. So, about a week after Murdercrow's attack, Slade's attempt to use his Chromoton Destabalizer happened, as did the results. What the Titans saw also inspired one of my other fics, Here Comes Tomorrow. After that some time passed, in which the meetings Noel was attending ended and he returned to the Titans, and then came…

-The opening events of The Epic of Gauntlet. I've repeatedly mentioned this series, written by the author BobCat. We know each other well, and as a result, I have decided to incorporate some of his plot into Wings. Specifically, his character Robert Candide, aka Gauntlet. So, why don't you go and read that story so you know who he is, and we can move on.

Wow, done already?

Yeah, didn't think so. I swear, I plug and plug and BobCat continues to get a gross lack of respect. The man is great! Well, since you're too LAZY to go read the fic, and I hate to leave you floundering, I'll give you an overview.

Robert Candide is a 15-year old teenager who has gotten his hands on an ancient magical artifact/doohickey. Similar to the Witchblade and Darkness weapons of the Top Cow comic universe, Robert keeps the Gauntlet in a ring form until he needs it, at which point it covers his entire right arm. The Gauntlet surrounds him with a malleable yellow-tinted shield that he can manipulate into crude shapes much like the Shimmer. It also provides considerable protection for him (abet not enough to make him invincible. Baseball bat? Laughs it off. Bullet shot from a gun? Not pleasant but he can handle it. 18-wheeler going 60+ mph? Ow. You get the idea), as well as enhancing his natural abilities to a superhuman but not omnipotent degree (he can only lift four tons. Yeah yeah, but remember, this is a world where lifting a whole building is yawned at).

So, how did Robert end up on the Titans? Actually, it's complicated, but he wound up on the team as a way of doing community service (want more details? READ THE DAMN FIC!), the chance to refuse his joining lost due to an error of communication. While he meshes relatively well with the team, Robert is by nature gregarious, irreverent, mischievous, and easily controlled by his sudden desire to do things, even if such things would be considered stupid. As a result, he drives Noel completely up the wall, as he has a much more serious and somewhat bleak method in his heroics. While the schism between them does not cause problems when it counts, in personal situations Noel sees Robert as nothing more than an idiotic goof who doesn't understand just how serious this "job" is (and he also has other reasons, but we'll get into that later). Basically, they ain't buddy buddy. Anyway, the first arc of the Epic of Gauntlet saw another plot of Slade's that involved a figure from Robert's past: a young warrior named Kurai who commanded immense energy powers much like a character from DBZ. The arc also saw the introduction of more of Robert's villains, a return from Blackfire, a deus ex machina so weird and inane Slade went on strike because of it, and all sorts of very funny stuff for which YOU SHOULD READ THE FIC FOR. And while you're at it, go read his short DBZ story "The Very Model", even if you don't like DBZ or don't know anything about it. That story NEEDS AND DESERVES more attention. Really.

-Anyway, once that ended, Noel, much to his annoyance, got called back by the forces behind the meetings to do one last thing. The Titans, joined by Gauntlet, did whatever they did while Noel was gone. But the meetings have finally ended for good, and Noel is heading back home…

And that is where our tale resumes…


	12. Bad Mama: Nobody Does Anything About It

Chapter 10: Nobody Does Anything About It…

Noel Collins, in his Savior form, tapped his hands on the wheel in time with the tune as he zipped along the mostly deserted road, the roof on his blue convertible down and the radio on full blast. Noel didn't really have a taste in music, so he was just randomly flipping the dial around and singing along to the songs he found, and if he didn't know the lyrics, he'd make them up. This was one of those cases. What the lyrics actually were in the chorus were "Hear the engines roll now. Hit them on the road now", but all Noel could make out was the general sound. The result was this.

Hear The Engines Roll Now!

"Hideous control now!"

Hit Them On The Road Now!

"Hit them with a snow plow!"

Hear The Engines Roll Now!

"Idiot control now!"

Hit Them On The Road Now!

"Bitten was the dog chow!"

And so on. One particular interesting change was when Noel turned the line "Raw is War's a Thorn In Your Eye" into "Lawrence War's alone with that guy!"

And so he would have gone on when he saw them.

At first, all he could make out was a general shape: someone standing by the road, thumb out. Hitchhiker. No, wait, two. There was a small child behind the one sticking out the thumb. Who happened to be a female.

Noel turned off the radio as his car sped towards them, thinking it over, and then concluded that after all the boring nonsense of the meetings and no real desire to go to the opposite extreme of having some crazy metahuman try to kill him, a good Samaritan deed was right up his alley. He slowed down and stopped.

"Hey, thanks mister!" said the little girl. She looked to be about eight, with fiery red hair and freckles. She was dressed in patched clothing. The older one was either her mother or a sister, as she looked pretty much the same abet older and a bit more…something. Noel couldn't put his finger on it.

"Can we toss the stuff in the back?" the teenage girl asked. Actually, despite her dishevelled state she was pretty good looking.

"Sure sure." Noel said. The girl threw two large backpacks in the back and then her little sister (daughter? Nah, had to be a sister, she didn't look old enough) climbed in after them. To Noel's surprise, the older one hoped right into the front seat. He thought it over for a second, and decided he could live with that provided he kept the Shimmer at the ready.

"Where you going?"

"Anywhere but here." The older girl said. Noel arched an eyebrow.

"Well, I can take you through Jump City, but that's pretty much it." Noel replied.

"Sure, great." The older girl said, putting an arm on the side of the car and resting her chin on her hand. Noel noticed a slight scar tracing the right side of her jaw. Wondering what that was about, Noel started the car up again and drove.

It took about twenty seconds before the younger sister stood up behind Noel to feel the wind. Noel glanced behind him.

"Naomi sit down! You'll get hurt!" the older one snapped.

"But it's so cool!" Naomi whined.

"SIT DOWN! He'll kick us out!"

"No no I won't. But really kid, you shouldn't stand up, you could…"

And that was when he saw the blur of motion, a moment before he felt the switchblade pressing against a very sensitive part of him. His eyes widened, and he turned to look back at the older one, who now had a knife against his crotch and a hardened, angry look in her eyes.

"Sorry buddy, but my sister and I haven't eaten in two days. Now, give us your wallet or I WILL start cutting. Believe me." She snapped, holding out her other hand.

Noel sighed.

"I don't suppose you believe I had no intention of harming you or your sister, or asking you for any sexual favours in payment for the ride." Noel said, saying the second part in a low tone so the little girl didn't hear it. The older sister's eyes remained stone.

"Chivalry's dead." She snapped back.

"Yes, that seems to be the opinion these days. Well, in that case, I must apologize."

The older sister now looked confused.

"For what?"

"For this."

And Noel yanked the wheel in a hard right even as Shimmer strands flew from his hands and grabbed the knife away before the older sister could react. In a split second, the strands disarmed the older girl and wrapped around her and her sister as Noel went with the sudden momentum and half-jumped, half-was thrown out of the car. The two girls joined in a scream, but they were in no danger. The car turned a bit, and then lost all momentum and stopped as Noel landed by the side of the road. He then put down the little girl gently. He put the older sister down not so gently: while the young one was carefully put on her feet, Noel let go of the other one a foot from the ground. She landed with a small yell.

"Now…about your personal skills…" Noel began.

"You hurt my sister!" The young girl (Naomi) yelled, and then Noel suddenly felt a surge of heat on his face.

Then Naomi thrust her hands out and began firing small spheres, about the size of a golf ball each, at Noel. Noel's eyes widened, and then he lashed Shimmer strands in front of him as a shield as the orbs exploded on contact. The barrage continued for several seconds. When it stopped, Noel put the shield down and observed the clearly tired child.

"I'm not going to…!" Noel began.

"Walk away!" the older girl yelled, having gotten up. She put herself in front of her sister and again Noel felt the surge of heat, this time even more intense. Ah bugger.

Older Yet As Unnamed Girl didn't fire spheres. Instead, she brought her hands up to her face and blew like she was blowing a kiss. The proverbial kiss of death, as a gigantic gout of flame exploded off her hand and directly towards Noel. Noel threw up the Shimmer shield again and then the flames devoured him.

"Kat, I don't think we had to use so much! In fact, I think…" Naomi said.

"Hush Naomi. We can't trust anyone. Plus, he had…" "Kat" said, and then her eyes widened as the smoke cleared, revealing what looked like a cocoon. Made of the Shimmer, which unwrapped to show a slightly sooty but otherwise unharmed Noel.

"Now, can I talk this time, or are you going to keep trying to light me on fire? Because this thing's completely fireproof, and I can stand here all day until you, how shall I say, burn yourselves out. I'm not your enemy." Noel said.

"IT IS HIM! Kat, it's that Teen Titan! Saver!" Naomi said. The hard look in Naomi's eyes vanished, replaced by a sudden apprehension. It was quite clear that in her head, the words "Uh oh" were looming quite large.

"Savior." Noel corrected. "Now, since you know who I am, might I ask why you wanted to rob me and then try and scorch me off the face of the planet? Didn't you recognize me? You miss the hair? The white jacket with the S on back and the T on the shoulders? The fact that I pulled you out of the car via magical white lines?"

"Can't trust anyone these days." Kat said.

In the end, Noel had to agree with her.

***********************************

A little later, hiding his hair under a hat, Noel sat in a restaurant as Naomi gobbled food.

"Careful, you'll choke." Kat said, and then turned to Noel. "Well, just to be sure. You're Savior, of the Teen Titans."

"Yes. And who are you?"

"I'm Katherine, that's my little sister Naomi. Some people call us Spitfire and Firecracker, for obvious reasons."

"Gotta have a title."

"Maybe if you're a so called superhero. Me, I don't care for it. But, what can you do?" Katherine said.

"So, what are you doing?"

"Our mom died a year ago. And the state home we went into was…lacking." Katherine said. She brushed her chin, perhaps subconsciously, once again indicating the small scar. "So me and my little sis hit the road to find our father. I'm SURE, due to our abilities, that he's a metahuman, one on a team. But it's hard to get close to those kind of people."

"Yeah, we can be." Noel said, sipping a milkshake. "So, you wanted our help?"

"The Teen Titans? No. All we need is a ride, some money, and a lead. We were going zero for three before you showed up. Sorry about the knife and the fire by the way."

"Hey, can't trust people." Noel said. "Now look, since we've met each other, and I'm hardly one to tell people to deal with their own problems, I'm going to see what I can do."

"Really?" Naomi asked.

"Sure. Now go ahead and order any dessert you want, I need to make a phone call." Noel said, getting up.

No sooner was he gone then Naomi leaned over to her big sister in a conspirator-esque fashion.

"I think he would be great!"

"Maybe, we'll see. Until then, let's take advantage of his kindness." Katherine said. She wasn't ungrateful for Noel's aid, but she had seen too much to really trust anyone.

Noel had his own annoyance: the line was busy. Dammit, he'd have to try later.

******************************

Somewhere else, another person was on the phone: an armoured car guard. He and his four companions (including the driver) had been escorting a large amount of cash (for what? He didn't know. It was need to know information and he didn't yadda yadda yadda) to Star City. Except heavy rains for the past few days had caused a mudslide across their planned route. Forced to back up and go another way, the driver had looked at his map and determined the shortest route would take them through Jump City.

And considering the very large amount of cash they were carrying, and the certainty that NOTHING was 100 percent foolproof, the guard was on the horn to the city's resident protectors: The Teen Titans.

And now you know why Noel's call couldn't get through.

*******************************

"You want to what?" Robin was saying on the other end. "I see. Well I don't know why…HOW MUCH? Ok ok, I get the idea. All right, we'll help. Ok, ok!" Robin said, and put the phone down. He then summoned all the Titans to the living room. 

"Ok, what gives? This better not be long." Cyborg grumped. Robin couldn't blame him: he had forced Cyborg off the phone while he was talking to his new girlfriend Latrisha. And seeing how he was the first male canon character to break the curse of no relationships, we can probably understand his irritation.

"Ok Titans, here's the situation. An armoured car has been diverted through our city. It contains a very large sum of money, and the diversion could have been done by unnatural means."

"Well, duh. Ever heard of a mudslide landing ON the armoured car? Or AFTER the armoured car?" Robert Candide, aka the Gauntlet and the newest Titan member, said.

"Right right. So, if this is being used a setup, we need to consider by who. And quickly, as we don't have much time! Ok, first of all: Slade. And not just for the money, he might be doing it for someone else. That means he could send any of his sub-ordinates. So, we keep an eye out for the Troika, Cinderblock, Overload, maybe Plasmus…Rob would Kurai go for this?"

"Not unless he figured out a way that the money dishonoured him."

"I'll take that as a no. Ok then, who else?"

"Mumbo." Cyborg said.

"Killer Moth could be behind it." Beast Boy.

"And it is possible Mad Mod could use the money too." Starfire said.

"Not to mention Warp, Dr. Light, there's an off chance Puppet King might want the money…has anyone checked to see is Trident is still stuck in his cave?" Raven said.

"Great, anyone want to add any MORE names to the list?" Beast Boy groaned.

"We're just considering all possibilities Gar. We can't make a counterplan for every possible scheme, ESPECIALLY in the time we have, but if we consider all the possibilities, we can react when, or if, any of the people we've listed show up."

"Unless…THEY'RE ALL WORKING TOGETHER!" Robert said, thrusting his arm up in a grave dramatic motion. A second later, Cyborg's metal hand slammed against the back of Robert's head.

"OWWWWWW!"

"Friend Victor! Why did you strike friend Robert?" Starfire gasped.

"He'll jinx us!"

"He will turn us into Jinx?"

Cyborg facevaulted.

"Ohhhhhh…I have a few more suggestions…" Robert said, looking a bit woozy. Robin wasn't paying much attention: he was scanning a map of Jump City on which he'd traced the car's route.

"Oh really? What?"

"Uh…The Blue Beetle?"

"WHAT? The Blue Beetle?" Robin said, looking up.

"Isn't he a good guy?" Beast Boy asked.

"The Martian Manhunter!" Robert continued.

"Have you lost your mind? Wait, don't answer that question."

"Darkseid!"

"Enough! Ok, Raven and Starfire, you're air unit. Victor, you're with me on the ground. Robert, snap out of it, you're with Beast Boy on rooftops."

"Great! And Tim, I just wanna say…your girl Kory…she's lovely…all three of her…" Robert said, and then fell on the floor face first.

********************************

Some time later, The Titans were in the city. The armoured car had managed to enter the city without incident, and now Robin and Cyborg were following it in the T-Car, which had every single sensing mechanism armed and scanning. Raven and Starfire were in the air, and Beast Boy and Gauntlet were on the rooftops.

"Three O'clock and all's well! Three O'clock and all's well!" Robert said on his communicator.

"Great." Robin replied. "Hopefully we can get through this without incident."

"Do not make us become Jinx!" Starfire's voice crackled. The only reason Robin didn't facevault was because he was sitting down.

"Nothing like we know." Cyborg said, checking his computers.

"Still all's well here." Beast Boy said. The car was now about 2/3 of the way, and Gar Logan had begun to relax. Looked like everything would be fine.

"Well Beast Boy, I must admit, this is a good day to guard a ton of cash which could easily have been transferred via electronic means but was instead transported by this anachronistic method for some reason I can't comprehend…where was I again?" Gauntlet said.

"Good day." Beast Boy said.

"Ah yes! There's even a nice breeze! Probably to represent that this is a breeze!" Gauntlet said.

"Yeah…wouldn't call it a breeze though…kinda strong…" Beast Boy said, and if on cue, the growing wind grew stronger. Now all his exposed fur was doing that snapping whip motion that some things do when exposed to high wind.

"Yeah…hey, what happened to the breeze? It breezed away! Hey, are clouds supposed to do that?" Gauntlet said, pointing at the dark clouds that had appeared above Jump City.

"No! I think we all became Jinx in the ENNNNNNNDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!" Beast Boy yelled as the wind suddenly tripled in strength and blew him off his feet, tossing him through the air like a rag doll.

"YIPE!" Gauntlet yelled, throwing out his shield as he tried to get a grip on the roof. But the stones tore up from under his hands and he found himself in the air as well.

"3 O'CLOCK AND ALL'S NOT WELL! A hurricane wind has come out of nowhere, our air units are probably getting a far worse experience, Cyborg is having weird dreams about computer viruses despite finally having a girlfriend, I still don't have a love interest and it's only TWO-THIRTY……!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Robert yelled into his communicator as he blew away.

"What the hell is going on!" Cyborg yelled, as his sensors went nuts. 

"I don't know…" Robin said. In front of him, the armoured car had stopped, and then, suddenly, LIGHTNING began to hit it. Yelling, the guards bailed out to avoid being electrocuted. "But it just lost its last chance at seeming natural! Cyborg, try and re-group the troops! I'm going out!"

Robin leaned down and pressed a button on his boots, and then he opened the T-Car door and stepped out. Immediately, powerful suction activated, locking Robin on the ground. The wind tore at him, but his feet were effectively secured, and it couldn't blow him away. The downside was that he had to walk VERY slowly in order to keep one foot on the ground at all times.

The guards were hanging onto the armoured car, as the lightning bolts had stopped. But, in front of Robin's amazed eyes, TORNADOS suddenly sprang up on each side of the large vehicle, picking up all the guards and tossing them away like they were made of paper. One tornado passed over the car, and the sudden change in pressure caused the back door to explode off its hinges.

And then Robin knew who was attacking them, even before he saw him as he floated down.

He wore a skintight green costume that had a raised collar and a series of gold bars down its chest that could be said to look like a lightning bolt. He wore a pair of ugly green sunglasses, and his hair was dark and high (it rather reminded Robin of Egon's hair from _Ghostbusters_). His face had a slightly pitted look, acne scars probably, and in one hand he held a thin glowing gold wand.

He floated there, held by winds he controlled, his arms crossed, looking with some amusement at Robin, whose eyes narrowed.

"Mark Mardon." Robin said.

"Well met Titan." Said the man known to the world as the Weather Wizard. "Quite the weather we're having, hmmmm?"

"You caused that rain! You caused the mudslide! But you made a mistake coming into our city!" Robin said, trying to hide the fact that the driving hurricane winds that the Weather Wizard had summoned was keeping him from doing anything besides standing up.

"I don't suppose you'll take the advice your adult contemporaries never do and surrender?"

"NEVER!"

"Fine then." The Weather Wizard said, as lightning flashed in the roaring clouds above him. "Feel the power of Mother Nature! And believe me, she is one BAD MAMA!"

And then the bolt zapped down at Robin.

To Be Continued


	13. Bad Mama: The Sprains and Maims Come Mai

Chapter 11: The Sprains and Maims Come Mainly From The Rain…

Lightning is pretty nasty. All well as possessing ample AMP's to kill human beings (AMP's are usually what killed electrocution victims, as it was that that caused hearts to stop), lightning also generated enough heat to cook people in a way that most electric sources could not muster. Also, it moves at one thousand feet per second, which is a lot quicker then most people could move.

Fortunately for Robin, that was why he was on a team, as a yellow glow appeared over him as the Weather Wizard was finishing up his command and took the blast, redirecting it into the ground. Robin looked back to see Gauntlet, who gave him a thumbs up.

"Hah! You failed! And as we all know, lightning never strikes the same place twice!" Gauntlet said.

The Weather Wizard waved his wand, and several more lightning bolts sprang down from the clouds, zapping the artifact-bearing teenager one after another.

"Must…stop…confusing…popular quotes…with…reality…" Gauntlet groaned, smoke wisping off of him despite his shield's best efforts to protect him.

"Hey!"

The Weather Wizard turned to look at Cyborg, who was standing nearby. The hurricane winds had died down a bit, the Weather Wizard focussing on other things, and hence Cyborg could not only stand, but Starfire could float next to him. Robin had deactivated the suction and was now in front of them as he pulled out a Birdarang.

"Go to Grandma's washing day." Cyborg said, arming his sonic cannon. The Weather Wizard didn't seem all that perturbed.

"Hey kids, want a snow day?"

And then the three were swamped as a new wind whipped up, along with a sudden drenching inundation of wet, heavy snow. Not only was it cold, it obscured the Titan's vision.

They attacked anyway, but Robin's Birdarang was tossed away by the wind, and only able to see vague shapes, Cyborg and Starfire fired their blasts.

And hit Gauntlet, throwing him into a wall. He bounced off, groaned, shook his head, and then waved his fist at the sky.

"Dammit Legend Maker! I'm not just some grinning moron who serves as a source of pratfalls!"

**_Fine fine._**__

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" Raven chanted, pulling up mailboxes, newspaper boxes, and trash cans and hurling them at the Weather Wizard. But a tornado twisted into being before him, catching all the hurled projectiles, and Raven screamed as the twister blew back in her direction, enveloping her in a storm of debris.

Growling, Beast Boy pounced on the Weather Wizard in the form of a lion, driving him to the ground. The Weather Wizard, however, managed to hold onto his wand, and with a gesture he and Beast Boy were suddenly airborne, courtesy of some well-directed intense winds. When they were thirty feet in the air a torrential rainfall enveloped them, soaking them both within a second and making it far more slippery for Beast Boy. He could have dug his claws in to stay on, but if he'd done that he could risk seriously injuring the Weather Wizard, and that wasn't his thing. As a result, when the Weather Wizard twisted he slipped off, plummeting. Fortunately, he turned into a housecat and landed on his feet, even as the Weather Wizard resumed a vertical stance and blew himself dry with a blast of wind.

"Titans, regroup! Attack pattern Gamma!" Robin yelled as his allies gathered for a second charge. The Weather Wizard looked annoyed.

"Oh blow me."

And the hurricane winds sprang up at full blast, catching the Titans and hurling them away like rag dolls, despite their best efforts. The Weather Wizard smirked.

"Now, if you don't mind, I have some revenge schemes to finance." The Weather Wizard said, waving his wand. The bags of money flew out of the truck and spiralled around him, levitated by carefully manipulated winds. The Weather Wizard waved as he started flying up. "Thanks for the workout!"

And then he heard a tearing noise. His eyebrow arched, and then he yelled as suddenly he was inundated with money, the bags having been ripped open and the money freed. Keeping several heavy bags with him required effort but was doable, but keeping thousands of pieces of small paper nearby was nigh-impossible, and hence the money blew everywhere as the Weather Wizard wailed and screamed. He looked down at Gauntlet, whose force field was retracting from the sharp points he had used to rip open the bags.

"You know what they say. A fool and his money are soon parted."

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The Weather Wizard screamed, as his wand glowed. Robert suddenly found himself being barraged by both an intense lightning storm and an onslaught of hailstones (though at least they weren't the size of minivans. Let's see how many people get THAT joke). The extreme bombardment was even more then he could handle, and all his team mates were too far away to help…

And then the white line flew past Gauntlet, slamming into the Weather Wizard's chest and sending him airborne with a scream. Robert blinked.

"Why am I not surprised…" he muttered as Savior landed next to him.

"Everyone's in the gutter, you're getting trashed, and the police are nowhere to be found. Knew it would be up to me to bail you out." Savior noted. The tone was nasty, but only to a slight degree. It could have been far nastier. At this point it was almost a joking one…almost. Not quite. Before Robert could reply, Noel leapt after the Weather Wizard, hence ensuring he got the last word. And all was right in the world.

The Weather Wizard got up, glaring at Savior. With a snap of his wrist, he sent a lightning blast from the heavens. Savior merely raised an arm and the bolt struck a Shimmer formed lightning rod.

"Sorry. Insulated." Savior said.

With another yell, the Weather Wizard whipped up a rainstorm, drenching Noel. It only lasted for a few seconds, and when it was over, Savior didn't feel any worse. Though he was highly annoyed.

"Now what was…"

And then with another quick snap of his wrist, the Weather Wizard called down another lightning bolt.

On the wet ground. Savior's eyes widened. _OH SHI-!_

The bolt came too fast for even Savior to shield his feet with the Shimmer, and it was enough to kill him. Hence, we are about as surprised as he is when he finds he is still alive and not well-done toast a few seconds later. He blinked and looked down.

At the yellow energy field wrapped around his waist, holding him a foot above the wet road. With a tutting noise, Gauntlet put him down.

"Refusing to take him seriously, showing off, and leaving yourself wide open. Knew it was up to me to bail you out."

Savior's expression went from annoyance to pondering to thoughtful to annoyance again and then a kind of resigned acceptance.

"Touché."

"I'd say so." Gauntlet replied.

And then the wind barraged the two again. Savior and Gauntlet dug their respective talents into the street to keep from being blown away as the Weather Wizard fired up his hurricane again.

"Hey! This guy! He can summon any kind of weather at all?"

"What, this isn't enough for you?" Gauntlet yelled back. Then a wet dollar bill smacked into his face, covering his eyes. "Hey, I think this thing is counterfeit!"

"Great. Ok then, I have an idea. All I need is for him to summon a tornado!"

"And how are you going to do that? Ask him nicely?"

"No, via a technique I call…" Savior said, and then to Gauntlet's great surprise he grabbed him with the Shimmer. "GAUNTLETDOKEN!"

And Savior hurled Gauntlet at the Weather Wizard with a yell. The wind was too intense though, and blew him back. Savior snatched him in mid-air.

"Not getting enough distance! More power!" Savior yelled, and threw him again.

"THIS IS BEYOND AMUSING! THIS IS MARY-SUE TO CANON CHARACTER LEVEL ABUSE!" Gauntlet hollered.

"Yeah yeah, tell it to Phil." Savior said. (Writer's Note: Approximately two people will get that joke, but those two will love me for it.)

This time, Gauntlet got close enough, and the Weather Wizard did indeed summon another tornado. Savior pulled Gauntlet back and put him down.

"Ok Gauntlet, here's the plan. See if you can get him to move in front of that thing, I'm going to call the cavalry."

"What do you mean move in front?" Gauntlet asked, but Savior was already gone. "Damn you and your divine right to get the last word!"

But Robert Candide was not an idiot, and as the tornado headed for Noel, and he tried to keep ahead of it via the Shimmer, Gauntlet leapt over to the Weather Wizard. He looked a bit surprised, and Gauntlet used that, lashing out with a battering ram and knocking the Weather Wizard off his feet. Summoned winds caught him, but Gauntlet leapt after him, and the winds had to carry the Weather Wizard away to keep him safe.

Right in front of the tornado that was still chasing Noel. He stopped, and then gave a signal.

And then two girls, one a teenager and one a child, ran out of an alleyway, and as Gauntlet watched, an intense wave of heat washed over him before the two attacked the…tornado, blasting with a huge fire stream and a storm of fire balls.

The Weather Wizard had recovered by now, and was getting ready to redouble his hurricane and blow all the little piggies' houses down on the Titans' heads, when suddenly there was a gigantic WHOOSH and the tornado ignited in flame, forming a fiery twister.

That was headed straight for the Weather Wizard. He yelped and tried to get some rain going, but it was too late: the twister blew into him and sent him flying, the heat messing up his control and scorching him. The twister quickly pattered out, as the Weather Wizard hit the ground, bounced, and came to rest at someone's feet. He looked up, one side of his sunglasses askew, at Robin.

"Weather THIS storm."

Robin kicked the Weather Wizard across the face, sending him flying backwards into a sonic cannon blast from Cyborg, which sent him forward into a dark energy claw uppercut of Raven's, which sent him upward into a Starbolt blast from Starfire, which sent him upward into the giant bird talons of Beast Boy, who was in the legendary creature form of a Roc, who flew down and tossed the Weather Wizard towards the ground…

Where he was caught by the combined arm of the Shimmer and Gauntlet's shield, and dumped onto the road. As the rest of the Titans gathered around those two, Mark Mardon groaned and passed out.

"Guess your RAIN is over." Beast Boy said. Everyone looked at him. "What?"

"Wait a second, how the heck did you make that tornado catch on fire?" Cyborg asked. Gauntlet suddenly produced a pair of glasses.

"Simple, my robotically inclined friend! The fire ignited the air inside the tornado, causing a temporary combined wind and combustion effect."

"That doesn't make any sense! Tornados aren't made of pure oxygen! And the wind should have been blowing way too hard for any fire to start up!"

"Ahem. Mortimer." Savior said.

Cyborg raised his arm to reply, and found he didn't have one. He looked perturbed.

"In any case, welcome home Savior. You're a sight for sore eyes." Robin said.

"Eh, just doing my job."

"WOW! THAT WAS AMAZING!"

And then Naomi rushed up to the group, jumping up and down in frantic excitement. "You totally kicked his butt! And you looked so cool doing it!"

"Well thank you, it was nothing…" Beast Boy began.

"Can I have your autograph Savior?"

Beast Boy facevaulted.

"Danger Will Robinson! Mary Sue taint creeping in again!" Gauntlet said, waving his arms wildly. Savior gave him a dirty look and then took the piece of paper that Naomi had produced.

"Sign on the bottom line!" Naomi said.

"Savior, who is this?" Starfire asked. Naomi beamed at Starfire, and she looked so cute Starfire beamed back.

"More importantly, who's THAT?" Beast Boy said, as Katherine approached. Noel watched as Beast Boy and Gauntlet suddenly found the need to tidy themselves up. _Huh. Maybe this could end well_…He thought as he absently signed Naomi her autograph.

"Savior…you made some new friends…did you?" Raven said. Her hood hid the vein pulsing on her forehead at the idea Noel had been driving around with another teenage girl. She trusted Noel. She did not trust the stranger.

"Actually, I picked them up on my way in. They're a couple of flame-ability metahumans, looking for their father. I figure we'd give them some help and send them on their way." Savior said.

"Actually, that's not quite true Savior." Katherine said. Noel looked over to her.

"Excuse me?"

"You…might want to look at what you just signed."

Savior arched an eyebrow, and then he finally took a close look at the piece of paper Naomi had given him. It wasn't the average piece of manuscript: there was professional looking writing on it.

"The metahumans codenamed Spitfire and Firecracker, hereby referred to as the first party, are hereby authorizing the signee, hereby referred to as the second party…" Savior read. Then he arched an eyebrow again. Then he arched BOTH eyebrows.

"Really should be more careful buddy." Katherine said. Savior lowered the paper.

"You must be kidding."

"Oh no, that paper is quite legitimate. And you signed it. It's legally binding."

"You have got to be kidding me! I offered you help, but not like…this!" Savior said, waving the paper around.

"What is it Savior?" Raven asked.

"Robin, take a look! This can't be serious!" Savior said. Robin took the paper and started reading it over.

"What did he sign? WHAT DID HE SIGN?" Beast Boy said, hopping up and down.

"…According to this, Savior just signed an agreement to accompany the girls on a search for their father, and to use all the resources and abilities at his command to help them." Robin said.

A pause. And then Gauntlet exploded in laughter.

"BWAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA! You know, I may like to do some things that are stupid, but that's the first time I've seen someone do something STUPID! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!"

"That can't be real Robin." Savior said. Robin read it over again.

"…Sorry Savior. Everything checks out. You signed a genuine document, and are legally bound to carry it out."

"But…but…but…" Savior said. He turned to look at the girls. "Come on! You can't really want this?"

"What were you going to do, give us a list of names and a bus ticket? Sorry Savior, my sister and I needed more then that. I apologize for the deception, but as your leader says, that contract is real. If you try and deny us the services you signed for, we'll sue you for breach of contract. Even if we don't win, I don't think you need any bad press attention. I do watch the news on occasion." Katherine said.

Savior stared at her, and then he looked down at Naomi. She grinned happily at him.

"We'll have a road trip! It'll be fun!" she said.

"You'll provide the car of course." Katherine said.

Savior could only shake his head while muttering into his palm.

*******************************

"It's too bad Noel. You come home only to have to leave again." Kory said as Noel finished packing up a few things in the Titans' lounge.

"Yeah, I know. But still, at least it's helping someone. For all I know, I could have accidentally signed away my soul."

"Don't turn yourself into Jinx!" Starfire said. Savior looked confused.

"Well Noel, as soon as you're done you're welcome back, and if you need any help, please don't hesitate to ask." Robin said.

"Right. Well everyone, hello and goodbye again. See you soon, and you, please fall off a cliff." Noel said, directing the last part at Robert.

"Sure. And as long as I'm doing stupid things, do they have another line on that contract?" Robert replied. Noel grimaced, and then he walked out.

"Hey, where was Raven? Didn't she want to say goodbye?" Cyborg asked. Actually, around the hallway, Raven was saying her own personal goodbye to Savior. Use your imaginations. Not in that way you hentais!

"Hey, I got the last word!" Robert said.

*****************************

Katherine walked down the hallway, now clean and with new clothes. Her little sister was already at the car that she and her, ahem, "employee" would be using on their trip. She had just had to grab one last thing, and then…

Raven was suddenly in front of her. Katherine started.

"YIKES! Don't do that!"

"Oh so sorry." Raven said. 

"Look Raven, I know you're not happy, but it was your boyfriend who signed the paper without looking at it. He has eyes, you know."

"Eyes you misdirected via your little sister. Real nice." Raven replied.

"Look, I needed a guarantee. That's all it was. We won't be using him to fight our battles or as a pawn in some scheme. We really just want his help to find our dad. That's it, that's all. Ok?"

"Oh yes, I know that. I also know something else, and that's why I'm here…"

And then a claw of black energy slammed up from the floor and pinned Katherine against the wall as Raven's eyes glowed and her cloak flared up into living shadows.

"IF YOU EVEN HAVE A DIRTY THOUGHT ABOUT HIM I'LL RIP YOUR LUNGS OUT AND PULL YOUR SPLEEN OUT THROUGH YOUR NOSE."

"Gah…deal." Katherine said, making a peace sign. Raven let her go.

"I'm glad we see eye to eye on this. Good luck. And don't think I'm joking." Raven said, and disappeared. Katherine massaged her throat.

"Yikes. Possessive bitch."

"I heard that." The shadows said. Katherine paled and took off down the hallway.

****************************

"It's almost like a conspiracy to keep Noel out of the team." Robert said, as the Titans watched the car drive out of the Tower and head off into the distance. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Yeah, he does kind of put a damper on things. Ok guys, who wants to do something stupid?" Beast Boy said.

"I'll pass." Raven replied. "Tim, don't forget we have that thing at Jump City High School in a few days."

"I remember."

"Well friends, we have defeated the latest villain without harm, and none seem to be on the horizon! Let us celebrate! I will sing all 7,890 verses of the Song of Celebratory Happiness!"

Within ten seconds the room was empty.

"Was it something I said?"

*****************************

And before we go, let us close with some actual singing.

"I've been driving all night, my hand wet on the wheel! Do do do do do!." Katherine sang, bopping along to the song on the radio, _Radar Love_.

"There's a voice in my head that drives my heel! Do do do do do!" Naomi sang along.

Noel just shook his head in a good-natured manner as he headed out of Jump City, the wind in his hair and the Tower at his back. Who knows what adventures this new trio might have?

Well, you can think of them yourself. I'm out.

Next: Eye of the Beholder!


	14. Eye of the Beholder: Shallow

Chapter 12: Shallow

Writer's Note: In between the events of this arc and the last, the events of "Terra" happened. However, this was Bobcat's version of the events, and in it Gauntlet stopped Terra from leaving, hence negating the whole "Judas Contract" storyline. So, after getting a new member who is now learning to control her powers, the Titans moved on…

*************************

His name was Morris Dees, and he was the principal of Jump City High school. And he was bored out of his mind.

A chubby, balding fellow in his early fifties, Principal Dees was currently overseeing the school's yearly science fair, along with Toddard Field, the school's science teacher, a thin, bony man with creepy looking fingers. The man looked like he was barely keeping himself from reaching out and plucking out your eyes. Dees didn't much like him. Rounding them up were a few other teachers.

Dees was unhappy for two main reasons. The first one was because that this year's exhibits were just so…uninspired. Year after year, students repeated the same old projects, hardly even changing the personal touches. If you'd seen one paper mache volcano erupt with vinegar and baking soda, you'd seen them all.

The other annoying thing was that due to a mixup, the science fair was happening on the same day that something Dees WAS interested in was happening: a meet and greet with two of the city's resident heroes, the Teen Titans: the goth girl Raven and their leader, Robin. Though the fire that Dees had once had for trying to guide kids (a fire that had gone out when he slowly realized over the course of years that many children are stupid, cruel, and uncaring about any form of education, secure in a delusion of immortality and invincibility and a constant thirst for pleasure that makes them block out things one considers unimportant. That, and the few gems tended to be destroyed under the weight of the masses, who were unspecial and uncaring and hated it when someone else wasn't that way. Then again, Principal Dees hadn't just stopped caring. The prospect that he had wasted his life was looming large, and whether that was true or not, the very idea had caused him to grow bitter) was gone, he did had a few shreds of his original beliefs that positive and proper role models could help kids grow up and shake off the apathy so many of them seemed to have at that age. And since the Titans ran around in costumes and fought villains, the kids might actually think they were cool.

But, as mentioned before, a scheduling error had put both the science fair and the meeting on the same day, and Dees was dragged into overseeing the science fair because that was what he ALWAYS did (remember, this was school. Different=evil not just in the minds of the students). His vice principal, Olivia Williams was in the auditorium instead, along with all the other teachers (besides the few Dees had dragged with him, as well as Field, whose interest in science was almost as creepy as his hands), while he was in the gym, looking at half-hearted, hackneyed exhibits of solar power and magnets. He was beginning to think that maybe he should just randomly pick a name, give first prize, and run back to the auditorium before the Titans left.

Dees nodded back to reality as the latest student finished his oral presentation on his project: why seeds grew better in water then in chlorine. He'd seen that kind of experiment at least five times in the history of his supervision, though Toddard was nodding his head, not so much in interest but more of a rapture that the boy was doing some kind of science work. Principal Dees sighed and moved on.

And stopped.

Unlike most of the exhibits, which tried to cover up the generic nature of their projects with nicely colored graphs and general other saccharine nonsense, the next exhibit was composed of a simple table, upon which rested a helmet.

And what a helmet! At first thought to be some crude mockup covered with tin-foil, Dees leaned in and was astounded that it was real. Using a hockey helmet as a base, almost all of the original had been stripped away and replaced with gleaming metal, which was topped by a twin set of glass ovals. The ovals were multi-segmented, like a bug's eyes, and covered virtually all the front of the helmet. It was one hell of a construct…and one Dees couldn't really believe once he recovered.

"And this is…?" Dees said, looking at the person standing behind the table.

It was a teenage girl, about fifteen years old. She had Hispanic features and was pretty good looking, abet a tad boyish. Her dark brown hair was tied behind her in a loose ponytail, and her brown eyes were hidden behind sunglasses. She was dressed in a lab coat that was tied in the front, her hands in its pockets and her head slightly down, as if she was studying the table.

"Mrs. Mori? Splendid! I never knew you had it in you!" Toddard was saying. The girl didn't reply. She kept her eyes on the table. Principal Dees looked at the chart.

"Excuse me? You are Mrs. Mori? Marissa?"

The girl again didn't reply.

"What does it do?" one of the other teachers, a female, asked. Lifting her head, the girl called Marissa finally spoke.

"Personal invention of mine. I call it the Harmonic Beam Discernment Device. The apparatus is worn on the head, and these two parts are inserted into the ears and link up to the neurological system of the wearer. Once that is done, the multi-layered glass and crystal lenses serve as focus points for a rapid series of lights flashed in highly specific patterns chosen by the user's mental commands." Marissa said.

"What?" Dees said. Only Toddard seemed to have any understanding, and he looked to be on the verge of having an orgasm. "What does it do?"

"Whatever you decide. You see, the human animal mostly relies on sight to process the majority of information fed to it. But the human optical system is highly flawed. If certain information is fed to it in a sudden subconscious and unblockable feed, it can easily have it's perception warped to the point where it is not only seeing things that are not there, it utterly BELIEVES that they are there, despite the actual reality that they are NOT. In terms you fucks can understand, it makes you hallucinate so violently that you not only SEE things, all your other senses detect them as well, and react accordingly!"

"WHAT?" Dees said.

"Oh, don't take my word for it: see for yourself!" Marissa said, as she reached into the helmet and pressed a few switches, even while behind her sunglasses she tightly closed her eyes. The helmet suddenly opened up on the back, exposing a glowing red network of energy lines.

Then the eyes on the helmet flashed.

To an outside observer who was somehow immune to the effect, their naked eye might have seen three rapid flashes. In actually, in the half second the device activated, several million individual flashes had happened, a pattern over the device so quick no human eye could have made it out. They saw it all at once, even as the patterns plunged into the brain and activated electrical impulses in certain areas in a certain order, feeding in mathematical formulas and images and stimuli that the brain couldn't resist. A normal human brain against this device was much like a computer without a firewall: it just didn't have the proper defenses.

That was what was happening inside Principal Dees's brain. Outside, he had just seen a bright flash.

And then he saw the sword, swinging down at him.

When he was a child, Dees had nearly cut his finger off playing with a knife. It had been a terrible experience, and given him a lifelong aversion to blades. The device, having had proper data on the human brain, took this fear and magnified it. As a result, Dees saw a sword chopping down towards him…

That hacked his right arm off at the shoulder.

Dees screamed as he stumbled back. He could feel the terrible pain, the blood gouting out of the wound, the shock as the body lost a part it had had since it had been born. He felt it, as deeply as he had felt any cut or bruise he had ever suffered.

And only him. What everyone else saw was Dees stumbled back as he screamed at the top of his lungs, holding his right shoulder. His right arm dangled, totally lifeless. And it was. Certain that it had been removed, the brain had immediately severed the nerve connections that moved the limb. Despite the fact that his arm was still attached, the information the brain was receiving was telling it IT WASN'T.

Everyone gaped in horror at Dee's pain, even as, in his eyes, he saw the sword swing back up.

"NO!"

And then all he saw was black as the sword "decapitated" him. The brain read the info that a blade had indeed severed the spinal cord at the neck, and went into the "proper" reaction a brain in that situation would: it died. Dees jerked his own neck so violently at the supposed impact of the sword that he broke his own spine, and then he tumbled over, dead.

"Truth doesn't matter. Only perception does. Reality is in the eye of the beholder." Marissa said, completely unperturbed that her device had just killed her principal.

For a moment, there was dead silence.

Then one of the teachers screamed and ran away. The other was still in shock at the sudden, out of nowhere death. And Toddard turned back to Marissa as she removed her hand from the device and picked it up.

"Brilliant! Absolutely marvelous Marissa!" he said. Did I mention Toddard Field had a few screws loose?

Did I also mention he had just said the wrong thing?

The teenager girl's eyes blazed with sudden rage, a rage that had barely been kept in check but was now spilling over as she raised the helmet towards Dr. Field.

"I'M NOT MARISSA!"

"Wait…WAIT NO!" Toddard screamed as he realized that "Marissa" had every intent of using the helmet on him. He tried to cover his eyes…

Too late.

Toddard Field didn't just have his long, graspy fingers because that was how he was born and just that. He had liked to use them to squash insects and pinch women. And when the helmet flashed its signals into his brain, he suddenly felt the air above him shift and looked up to see a gigantic finger descending from the roof.

"NO! IT'S NOT REAL! IT'S NOT REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Toddard screamed, trying to convince his brain that what he saw was a hallucination, a inflicted visual trick, not real, not real…

Except he could see it. See the grooves on the fingertip. The dry cracked nature of the nail. Hairs the size of his arm coming out of the section just above the knuckle. And his brain believed.

As the finger pressed down on him, squashing him like the bugs he used to squash.

And his body reacted, his muscles shoving him down and pulping its own bones as the brain read data that a huge weight was crushing it. In a second Dr. Toddard's Field own body had reduced itself to roadkill. Blood flowed from the corpse.

"My name is ZIA." Marissa, or perhaps now Zia, said, as she pulled off her labcoat and yanked off her sunglasses. Underneath her coat she wore heavily buckled leather boots and a black cloth pantsuit that had a dragon stretching across its length, the tail looping around her left leg and coming up to the torso, where it roared out at people. Picking up the helmet, she slipped it over her head, the device totally covering her face except for her mouth, as the uplinks hooked into her ear.

By now, everyone in the gym had realized something was wrong. But a few screams wasn't enough to make teenagers run. Neither was a fleeing teacher. Rather, it just piqued their curiosity, as a group gathered to look at what was going on.

A group Zia turned towards as her helmet finished interlinking with her brain.

"Do you see what I see?" she sang.

A giant flash of light blasted into the student's eyes.

And then the gym erupted into pandemonium. Students suddenly found themselves underwater, found bugs crawling and forcing themselves into every orifice, found acid raining down on them from above, as their brains were fed false data that their worst fears were coming true.

"Notice me now?" Zia said. "Of course not. You never do. Fucking pieces of shit."

And this girl, this Zia, walked through the gym, flashing her helmet's mind-altering strobe lights at whoever she saw wasn't effected. It must have been like hell in that gym, she mused. Except all she saw were people killing themselves, literally.

She noticed something: a body behind a table. Wearing familiar shoes. She pushed the table aside and found Mrs. Stephanie Audran, one of the teachers the late Principal Dees had dragged along with him. Mostly because she was so nice, almost to a doormat level.

"Marissa…why are you…"

Zia slapped her.

"Marissa's GONE. My name is Zia."

"Marissa…"

"ZIA!" Zia roared. "You want Marissa? Now? Well, TOO LATE. She's gone. She couldn't take it any more. Now I'm in the driver's seat. If you really wanted her you should have spoken up eight months ago. But you didn't."

"Speak…up…?" Stephanie goggled. It was clear she had no idea what was going on.

"Don't act like you don't know. DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE ACT LIKE YOU DON'T KNOW." Zia hissed. "But you want to, don't you? You, above all else with the capacity to care, and yet you act so shallow. Act like nothing is wrong. Act like the rumors are just that and not bothering to see otherwise. Because that would bring ruin to your ordered little world, wouldn't it, Miss Audran? A world you couldn't dare think of, a world where things like that happened. Well, they do. And it did. The rumors are true MISS Audran. I was born out of them."

"No…I wanted to do something…"  
"BULLSHIT! YOU DIDN'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING! YOU WERE TOO SCARED! YOU DIDN'T WANT TO GET INVOLVED!" Zia screamed. "Get involved in the messy grief of a girl who lost her mom. Didn't want to get involved even when rumors spread throughout the whole school that the girl's dad was…was…daddy no…it hurts…" Zia said, her hard tone briefly vanishing as a terrible memory washed over her.

It passed, and the rage returned.

"YOU DID NOTHING! YOU ALL KNEW AND YOU DID NOTHING! You just stood by and watched! None of you wanting to get involved! None of you wanting the trouble that would result when the rotten wound was laid bare! You just stood by and watched! And your pity was bad enough, BUT YOU DIDN'T STOP THERE! Eventually, you stopped feeling sorry and you…you dared…YOU LOOKED AT ME LIKE I WAS SOME KIND OF ABOMINATION! LIKE WHAT WAS BEING INFLICTED ON ME WAS SOMEHOW A CHOICE OF MINE, WORTHY OF SCORN, WORTHY OF DISGUST! IT WAS BAD ENOUGH WHEN YOU LOOKED UPON ME AS A VICTIM, BUT THEN YOU STARTED LOOKING AT ME LIKE I WAS SOME MUTATION YOU WANTED OUT OF YOUR PRETTY LITTLE WORLDS! SUCH AN UGLY THING HAPPENING TO ME, AND YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE **_I'M THE UGLY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_**

Her anger so great it was practically scouring the paint off the wall, Zia leaned back from the in-your-face position she had been screaming in.

"SO BE IT. You want to look at me like I'm ugly? Ugly in a way that goes beyond vanity and into abnormality? Fine. You brought this on yourselves. You want ugliness? I'll show you ugliness. I'll show you how your precious pretty, unspoiled world is only skin deep, but the ugly things in it go CLEAR TO THE BONE."

"No…I'm sorry…"

"Yes. You are." Zia said. "You know, my name is Zia. But before I send you along to your deserved fate, I think I'll give myself a new name. Call me Eyesore."

And Zia, now Eyesore, began to charge up her light blast.

And then one of her victims slammed into her, lost in his own phantasm, not even aware Eyesore was there, but knocking her aside all the same. Eyesore cursed violently and shoved the guy out of the way, but that was all Stephanie Audrum needed for her survival instincts to finally override her shock and she burst from her crouching position, somehow avoiding breaking an ankle with her high heels. With a scream, Eyesore turned towards her, but Stephanie slammed her hands over her eyes even as she closed them. Even with all that and her back turned, the light was still intense enough for some of it to make it into her field of vision, abet not enough to trigger the hallucinations.

She hit the door out of the gym and nearly fell over trying to make a 90-degree turn. Her mind reeled. She had to call the police, call any help at all, call the…

Titans. There were Titans at the school! And if any situation needed a superhero, one with a homicidally psychotic teenage girl with a dangerous mind-warping device was certainly near the top of the list.

And so Stephanie ran, hoping to make it in time, so freaked out she didn't even think to yell warnings at the students walking the hallways, who looked in surprise at the fleeing teacher, even as more of them had their attention drawn by the racket in the gym.

And then Eyesore stepped out, as calm as if she was taking a mid-day stroll. And she was. Marissa Mori was gone. She was Zia now. She had the power, and everyone who had stood by and watched was going to get one hell of a sight.

Their last. 


	15. Eye of the Beholder: Birds of Prey

Chapter 13: Birds of Prey

Robin had faced all manners of threats.

Humans with guns. Crazed psychopaths. Ice-cold sociopaths. Megalomaniac geniuses. Vicious metahumans. Bloodthirsty mutants. Rampaging monsters. Even a genuine god or two.

And yet, facing a group of his peers had its own great difficulty. Up before this group, Robin pretty much had one option: try and say the right things. If he didn't, they would laugh at him, and that would pretty much be it. He couldn't kick them or toss a Birdarang or sic his teammates on them. He had to take it.

Not that Robin had an ego. Nor was he unprepared. But all the same, one likes to be respected by one's peers. You would think that would come naturally for Robin: he was, after all, the leader of the Titans, surrounded by people who all had abilities beyond mortal man, and he WAS a mortal man, using only his hard earned skills and abilities to battle and win.

But at the same time, it also made it more difficult. By being who he was, Robin naturally attracted resentment. Perhaps without the person being aware of it. But deep down, on the animal level, they saw in Robin a superior organism, and hence a threat to their own survival. That was just the way people were.

So Robin was up there, after being introduced by the vice-principal of the school, carefully recalling what he was going to talk about. Raven was behind him, keeping to herself even in front of a crowd. He couldn't blame her. Her boyfriend was off with two other women after being tricked into helping them, one of them a very attractive redhead, and then just two days ago a new member had come into their lives: Terra, a teen who could literally make the earth move. Raven clearly distrusted her from the get go. All in all, she wasn't in the best of socializing moods. If she EVER was.

It was ok. Robin could manage.

"I would like to say that I stand before you not as a superhero, but as a teenager. But unfortunately…that is not true."

A murmur went through the auditorium.

"I have given some thought to my life, and others' lives, and I have come to this conclusion. I am not going to give you the advice that you all will succeed if you put your minds to it. I am not going to say that if you believe in yourself, you will grow up to be like us. I am not even going to say that we will always be there for you. Reality, for all purposes, is very much a perceptional thing. And I feel a problem in today's society is that too many of us try and project our own reality onto others. It is true that no man is an island, but all the same, we are all unique. Perhaps all of you will accomplish your dreams. Perhaps not. Perhaps we will always protect this city. Perhaps we will die tomorrow. No one knows the future. So, I stand before you as Robin, and I will give you some advice. And that is it. It worked for me, it may not work for you."

"In the wake of Columbine and other such tragedies, there are been a growing concern over youth violence. Some people even apply it to us, saying that we as teenagers have no business doing what we do. I believe this is nonsense. I believe it is not our actions that are causing this problem. I believe it is our perceptions. And this ties in when I say I do not stand before you all as an equal. For many of us are not equal. If we are cut, we bleed, and within our brains lies a nigh infinite amount of potential, but that is it. In many things I am better then you. In many things, you are better then me. This cannot be changed. It is the symbol of our species."

"What I believe must be changed is our stigmata that not being equal to someone is a bad thing. It is difference that allows our society to advance. Yet many people fear difference, and feel the need to mock it, degrade it, harm it, destroy it. Yet this is self-destructive! We are all different from one another! Yet many of us get along without a second thought. Yet for some others, a sign of difference is the sign of a freak. And this goes beyond such things as bullying and racism. There are people who walk among us who may suffer from even more tragic differences, marked in ways you may not be able to understand or comprehend. But as I said, this matters NOT. Because I am not your equal does not automatically mean I am your superior. Because someone does not share your interests or beliefs does not mean they are inferior. They just are. And that is all."

"I do not expect all of you to believe me. Perhaps your parents taught you differently. Perhaps you believe that it is better that everyone stays with people like them. Perhaps some of you feel that you understand each other and that is that. And if that is the case, then it is. I cannot, and will not, force your minds to change. But think of this. Look at someone you feel needs to be hurt, ignored, hated, feared, and really THINK about it. Put aside all past teachings and conclusions. Act as if you had just stepped into this world. Maybe this will bring change. Maybe it won't. I myself believe in difference being good. I believe that is with this that our society's future will be built on. Think of it like this. I stand before as I am to make my mark on the worldd, and I will not refuse you your way of doing it, within society's chosen laws of course. Will you deny me the same for reasons entirely your own? Or accept me for the good of the world, and perhaps yourself? No man is an island. Difference is not bad, it is natural. And while all men are not created or made equal, in the end no one can stand alone and move the future. That is all."

A silence. Then some applause. Some. It wasn't a standing ovation, and in the crowd Robin could see a few faces taunt with anger. He had touched them in some way that made them react with hostility. And he couldn't blame them. That was just the way people were.

"I will now take some questions. Keep in mind that while I have a sense of humor, I am also not a comedian. In other words, don't push me. Yes, you?"

"Yeah Robin, I was just wondering what you and the Titans do when you're not trashing the bad guys? Do you party all the time or what?" A male teen with brown hair and a blue shirt asked.

"Unfortunately." Raven said. Some laughter.

"Raven is not much in the way of partying. But Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Gauntlet, well, they're addicted to it. Savior prefers to read and contemplate, and Starfire is still adjusting to Earth life, but as a result she often wants to try new experiences. Myself…well, being the leader requires a certain amount of responsibility, but also, one must mind the phrase all work and no play make Jack a dull boy."

A redheaded boy with a thick moptop of hair and freckles took the mike.

"Robin…I need to know…why didn't you prevent the Final Night?"

Robin felt his guts clench. He had thought that a question like this might arise, and the truth was he really had no idea how to answer it.

Fortunately, he didn't have to, as Raven moved in.

"The John Doe psychopath who called himself the Lord of the Night was believed to be dead. He had a brilliant mind, and his ruse was well crafted and unfortunately, not suspected. When he struck again, we were unprepared. We had also just survived an extremely grueling battle and were not as sharp as we could have been. He defeated us, and before we could regroup, the Lord initiated the events that led to the Final Night. To be blunt, we did all we could, but we can only do so much. The fact that we are metahumans tends to have people focus on the meta and forget the human part. We did all we could, during the event and after, and for too many it was woefully inadequate. But that is our curse. We are just empowered teenagers. We are not gods." Raven said.

Silence, and then an older teen with a buzz cut and a leather jacket stepped up.

"Yo, I got a question about Starfire. Does she score as high on the babe-o-meter as she seems?" he cracked, and plopped back into his chair, much to the amusement of his friends. Robin looked irritated, and Raven kept his snapping remark from emerging as she answered again.

"Starfire is a joy to have around and is a wonderful person. NEXT question." Raven said.

"Hey Titans! If all of you were trapped on a deserted island, who would be the sole Survivor?" Another boy asked. Now it was Raven's turn to look irritated. Robin stepped up, even as he cursed Mark Burnett in the back of his head.

"Well, let's think about it. With our powers I don't know, but if we didn't have them…I think Gauntlet would quickly get on people's nerves and be the first to go. Raven behind me would probably go next due to her lack of physical strength. Beast Boy would be next, though he might be able to fly under the radar. Starfire poses the same possibility: her general personality could work for or against her. I think I would be eliminated due to my leadership role and Cyborg due to his strength. Ultimately, I think Savior would last the longest: he studies strategy constantly and would able to play most of us against each other. Ultimately, I think it would come down to him and either Beast Boy or Starfire. But in the end I think what got Savior so far would prove his undoing, as people would vote against him in revenge. So, either Beast Boy or Starfire. SERIOUS question next, please?"

"Robin, what do you feel is your greatest accomplishment?" a black girl asked.

"Individually, being chosen to wear this costume. But over all I would have to say it would have to be the several massive group efforts that my fellow metas have engaged in to protect this planet. There's nothing quite like knowing you had a small part in saving the world." Robin said.

An earnest looking girl with brown hair and glasses, wearing long dangling earrings, was next.

"Robin, I was, y'know, wondering if there's anything out there that, y'know, really frightens you? I'd get scared doing all the stuff you do."

Robin gave it some thought.

"You're right miss. I have been scared. Many times." Robin said, as he thought back over some of his experiences…

The time Batman was out of Gotham, and the Joker was turning the city into a chaotic nightmare via a brilliant computer hacker who was screwing up all the city's computer systems, and Tim was all alone against the chalk-faced madman…

Nearly being choked to death by Jean-Paul Valley, who Bruce had foolishly chosen to replace him as Batman after his back had been broken by Bane, a poor choice as Valley had severe mental problems from his upbringing and in the end nearly destroyed the city Bruce had assigned him to protect…

Lying in the Batcave, dying of the Clench, a mutated Ebola virus, as the same virus ravaged Gotham City. Ironically, it had been Jean-Paul Valley, by then reformed, who had found the antidote that cured him…

The terrible toxins of the Scarecrow and the horrible illusions of the cannibal Cornelius Stirk…

And a more recent incident, dealing with the teenage sociopath Johnny Shotgun, and later dealing with him again after he had driven an evil artifact through his heart and become the doubly dangerous Johnny Warlock…

"But fear is a malleable force. You can either let it control you, or you can use it to give you that little extra something. It's been said quite a bit, but anyone who isn't afraid on this job has something seriously wrong with them."

"Oh…um…another thing…what about, y'know, hitting and violence? Don't you get tired of it? I mean, isn't there a better way to work things out then caving in someone's head?"

Robin sighed. He should have noticed the earrings the girl was wearing were peace signs. Still, she had a point.

"Believe me miss, I know that violence is not always the answer, and I wish that it wasn't the answer so many times. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luthor King Jr spoke of humanity's need 'to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence.' Indeed, it is why I spoke earlier of my opinion that difference must stop being looked upon as bad. But sometimes, there is no other option. Violence is the choice we must select for the greater good. Sometimes, when the barbarians are at the gates and nothing you can say or do will prevent them from raping your wife and killing your children, you have to take a stand, and possibly die trying. Believe me, as bad as violence is, sometimes the alternative…is far far worse…"

And then the door slammed open. Robin nearly put a Birdarang through the person running into the room's skull, he was so startled. He restrained himself though, because the woman was screaming.

"HELP! OH GOD HELP!" Stephanie Audran screamed as she ran between the rows of seats. "SHE'S KILLING THEM!"

"What?" Robin said. He hopped down to the woman as she stumbled and fell down, and then tried to get up so fast she fell down again.

"SHE'S KILLING THEM!"

"She's doing what?" Robin said.

"Who's killing who?" Raven said, appearing by Robin's side.

"Marissa! Marissa Mori! She's gone insane! She's got some helmet…oh god stop her…" Stephanie babbled. Now that the door was open, Robin realized he could hear noise.

Screaming.

Which abruptly became a lot louder as another person ran into the room. A male this time, large and broad shouldered, and probably quite handsome…if he wasn't screaming at the top of his lungs.

"OH GOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he shrieked as he ran down the hallway. The shock at the sudden change was starting to wear off on the crowd, and the panic was starting.

Raven flew over to the teenager as he fell over, thrashing like he was having an epileptic fit. Not knowing what to do, she reached out to try and read his mind, and then recoiled as she saw his skin was BUBBLING, like it was being subjected to intense heat. The teenage boy continued to thrash, even as his skin sloughed off. A sick scent filled Raven's nostrils.

Then he gave one final spasm, his body arching up so only his heels and the top of his head touched the ground, and then he went limp.

"Raven!" Robin said, as Raven drew back from the body. "What the hell just happened!?!"

"….He burned to death."

"What? HOW? I didn't see any fire!"

"That's because there wasn't any." Raven stated matter of factly. She looked at Robin.

"I got a glimpse of his mind. His brain was in agony, utter turmoil…because it thought its, how shall we say, HOST was burning. And the body reacted. I saw no flame, sensed no heat, no poisons or anything that would cause this kind of damage. The body…did it to itself…because the brain believed it was happening…utterly…and it ORDERED the body to react accordingly." Raven said.

Robin didn't know what to say. So instead he acted, turning towards the crowd, which was by now starting to get up in preparation to flee.

"Ok ok, DON'T PANIC EVERYONE! Go to the exit doors, calmly and in a controlled fashion, DON'T PANIC. You'll bring more harm to yourselves if you do! We'll protect you! Now just go! DON'T PANIC!" Robin ordered in his Official Leader Tone™.

Fortunately, the crowd listened, and began filing out. Raven oversaw them as Robin walked back over to Stephanie.

"Ok, talk. What's going on?"

"Oh god…I'm so sorry…I should have done something…oh Marissa…I'm sorry…" Stephanie babbled. She was still in shock.

"SNAP OUT OF IT! WHAT'S! GOING! ON!" Robin yelled. Stephanie's mind cleared.

"It's this girl. Marissa Mori. Very quiet…reserved. Her mother died about a year ago. She was like that before, but afterward it got worse…her grades dropped…she started crying in the shower…and then the rumor started going around…but I didn't want to believe it…oh god…oh god…"

"What rumor?" Robin asked.

"…….I thought it was just a taunt…but I think…that Marissa…was being sexually abused by her…father…"

Robin's guts clenched again, even as his mind filled in pieces.

"I see. Do you have any proof?"

"No…Marissa never said anything…never…she just withdrew…and withdrew…but I think she…she yelled at me. Said her name wasn't Marissa. She said she was…Zia."

And the final piece fell into place.

"Thanks. Get out of here and call the cops." Robin said, as he gestured to Raven, who was seeing the last students out.

"Should we call the others?" Raven said as she floated down.

"No time. We need to deal with this."

"What's the problem?"

"I think we have a bad case of DID."

"What?"

"DID. Dissociative Identity Disorder. What used to be called multiple personality disorder. It happens to people under extreme pressure. Their mind fractures into pieces and generates a defense against whatever is causing them pain. It can be as little as two or as many as dozens. However, there is a core personality, a dominant one. Our doer was possibly sexually abused by her father, and she reacted by withdrawing, repressing everything…until now. Her core personality has been displaced by the other one, the one that probably has all the anger and hate she's repressed. A proverbial seed of destruction."

"So what do we do?" Raven asked as she and Robin walked into the hallway. They were eerily empty.

"I don't know. But we can't let her hurt people! No matter what! As for…" Robin said, as he turned the corner.

And stopped, shock rooting him to the spot.

The hallway was filled with body. Male, female, black, white, all united in death with the terrible expressions on their faces. Some had suffered severe mutilations, and the floor under Robin's feet was slippery with blood. He had stepped into an abattoir.

"My…god…" Robin said.

"Oh my…" Raven echoed, bringing a hand to her mouth.

"…It's worse then I thought. Raven, we have to…"

And then from another corner, a student ran screaming. Robin and Raven started at the sudden noise, even as the student, running from whatever phantom demons were harming him, ran face first into the wall with a sickening crunch noise, falling back and flopping like a fish on land.

And then she stepped around the corner, a well muscled female in a dragon-emblemed bodysuit, a robotic helmet covering her face that had red throbbing energy lines on the back and insectile eyes at the front. She turned and saw the Titans, and stopped at the sight.

Then she smirked slightly.

"So…Robin and Raven of this city's superheroes. The Birds of Prey." Eyesore said. "Tell me, do you think you do the least bit of good?"

"…HOW DARE YOU! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Robin screamed.

"Because you failed."

That wasn't the answer Robin was expecting.

"You all did. Failed in your duties and in your feelings. Chose to be lazy and blind and judgmental. Well, you reap what you sow. And it is a bloody harvest indeed."

"Who are you?" Raven asked.

"I am what they thought I was. I am what I will show them. I am Eyesore. Look upon me and scream Titans." Eyesore said, raising her arms.

"NO!" Robin said, snapping out a Birdarang.

"ROBIN NO DON'T LOOK AT…!" Raven said, even as she instinctively wrapped herself in a dark cloak of power.

The flash of light lit up the whole hallway, piercing into Robin's eyes, going right through the protective lenses he had built in to protect himself from such things as flash grenades, as the rapidly flashed commands pierced into his brain and began pushing buttons, even as he recoiled from the intense light.

It faded, and his vision returned, and with a growl he charged at Eyesore, whipping his staff out, planning to smash that helmet straight into her cranium.

Only to find his strength fading…

Only to find his legs giving out…

Only to find, as he fell among the corpses, that his whole body felt like it was on fire, even as her eyes suddenly seemed to start watering uncontrollably.

"Robin!" Raven said, appearing in the shadows next to him and kneeling down. She gasped as she saw what was coming from his eyes. Blood. He was crying blood.

Robin reached up and wiped his face, looking at the blood, and then he realized.

"The Clench…must have come back…Raven run…it'll get you…"

"No Robin! It's a hallucination! Not real! Snap out of it!"

"No Raven…can feel it…sorry…"

"Robin NO!"

"Hey birdie."

Raven saw the shadow fall over her, and she instinctively looked up.

"See the light."

FLASH!

To be continued.


	16. Eye of the Beholder: Clear To The Bone

Chapter 14: Clear To The Bone

There is a reason people tend to fear difference. Robin knew it well.

People tend to fear difference as they put it in the same light as deviance. Not so. Difference wasn't like gravity: if you jumped off a cliff you were going to fall and you shouldn't get mad at gravity for making that happen. No, difference just was. It made us unique.

But unique is a double-edged sword. If only one realm of possibility is explored, this negates the whole idea of unique. You have to have something everywhere. And that applies to the human condition. You had brilliant geniuses who could figure out the complex workings of the universe, and you had people whose mind were so decrepit and damaged either via fate or cruel circumstance they could do nothing at all. You had people who could lift great weights and you had people whose bones were so brittle that tapping them would cause a break. You had people who would never know nothing but the best and people who would never suffer anything but the worst. That was difference. The failings were of society.

But really, can you blame them? For many, they have been raised, as mentioned before, to believe that difference is bad. And they believe this because they look at the dark side of uniqueness, the side on which the bad seeds grow. The lunatics and the sadists, the destroyers and the defilers. Sad but true. You cannot have a cake and eat it too. If you want people to have a true civilization, you have to accept there will be bad seeds no matter what you do.

Unless you believe like the Lord did, but that is a whole nother can of worms. We are speaking of difference, and the failings of most to understand it. And that brings so many tragedies.

Such was the case of Marissa Mori's father, Mitch Mori, the man who has, through his sick perversion, put this terrible tableau into play.

Why did Mitch do what he did? Who knows? Maybe the same thing happened to him as a child. Maybe some things he saw or did made him acquire a taste for it. Maybe he was just born that way.

What we do know is that roughly three weeks after Marissa's mother, Ellen, died, Mitch Mori began to come into his daughter's bedroom.

We will not discuss what he did. We, as people, really do not need to dwell on it. Acknowledge it and watch for it, but do not obsess on it. That way can bring ever-greater horrors then the situation we are discussing now.

Rather, we will discuss the victim. Perhaps to us, Marissa should have done something. She should have gone to the police, gotten help. But Marissa had always been a quiet, reserved girl. And situations like this…there is a terrible stigmata of shame in them, a false but overpowering belief that to admit to the sick deeds of others will somehow prove ourselves to be even worse then they are.

So she said nothing. She tried to keep living, blocking out what her father was doing to her, something no girl should ever ever EVER have to experience. Fuck the macho bullshit theories that women somehow bring rape upon themselves. Not to say all men are rapists, but to think that the women are responsible is not just wrong, it's utterly pathetic.

That was bad enough. But life is known for pouring salt in wounds no matter how terrible they are. Perhaps at the beginning, Mitch had some sense that what he was doing was wrong. But as he kept doing it and nothing happened, that belief vanished. He assumed the mindset that he was totally justified in what he was doing, and as he went on, he grew angry that his "mate" was not responding to his "affections". And while he did not strike her (that left marks that could be traced), he berated her, telling her to 'show more zeal".

Show…more…zeal.

That a man could become something that allowed him to believe this in regards to what he was doing to his daughter.

The curse of difference.

With no one to help her escape from the hell her life had become, we can hardly blame what happened to Marissa Mori. The human survival instinct can be utterly astounding, although sometimes that ability is tainted by horror. Unable to cope with what her father was doing, Marissa's mind broke, putting all the pain and anger and shame and hate she had developed into something that could handle it. A whole new girl, who wouldn't lie there and take it.

The break had occurred about two months ago, and since then Marissa had been suffering blackouts. She didn't understand them, and hence knew nothing about what was happening as the new persona went out. But at first, the new one could not escape Marissa's kind nature. So instead of doing anything at first, it learned and observed.

And what it saw eventually led to the explosion of all the things Marissa had locked away. She had learned that even if she did come forward, it might be even worse. The media would go into a frenzy. She would be forced to relive the events through the police and the courts. Even IF her father was convicted of the crime, she would surely end up in a foster home, where the situation would be even worse. And everyone would look at her…

Well, like they looked at her now. Like a freak. An aberration. She had done nothing wrong, and yet everyone was judging her. Pity and inaction were bad enough, but as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt. Once they could grasp what was happening, and once they had made up theirs minds not to help, they had cast her out like a leper. Unclean. Unclean.

You think this impossible? Sadly, no. In 1968 a woman named Kitty Gervoise was attacked on her way home from work. Repeatedly, as her attacker fled and then returned a few times to finish the job. Her screams and attacks were witnessed by over 35 people. No one came to help. No one got involved. No one even thought to call police until after Kitty Gervoise was dead. When questioned about this, the general answer was they didn't want to get involved.

Who cared if she died? It didn't concern them.

She saw all this, and knew it to be true.

So be it.

She had built the helmet over the course of a week. It hadn't been hard. Marissa Mori had an incredible intellect, one hardly anyone noticed because she rarely exerted it. But now Marissa had been removed from the driver's seat. She was weak and pathetic, refusing to do anything. She was in charge now.

She, born when her father had dared in his deviance to tell her to show more zeal.

Zeal.

Or to the ears of a girl in that position, Zia.

And she was going to make them all pay. All the adults who suspected and guessed and never did anything. All the people in the system that hadn't even noticed Marissa's pain. And all those people in her school and beyond, who shunned her because the thought of what she was, a girl abused by her father, scared them because such a thing didn't fit into their neat little worlds. They could not allow such an ugly thing to bother their own beauty.

She, the victim.

She, the blameless.

It didn't matter.

In one way or another, all they could see her as was an eyesore.

And it was time to make them all pay. All of them would SEE the ugly things in life. All of them would SUFFER for their stupidity and laziness and apathetic cruelty. And all of them would die. They would pay for their sins in blood, their own, oceans of it.

She would no longer feel the pain. They would.

And she had a lifetime's worth to share with the world.

*************************

And with the two Titans whom had arrived. To her, they were as much at fault as the rest. Running around in their underwear fighting magicians and walking electric outlets while she had been forced to suffer in silence.

How dare they. Those fucks. Now they would suffer. And suffer SCREAMING.

And so she gave Raven a full charge of the HBDD, and the teenage girl reeled back, not able to close her eyes in time.

And to Raven, even as she tried to get her sight back, she saw Eyesore suddenly shift and change, her dark outfit turning purple, her skin turning red, her helmet vanishing as her features changed to Raven's, even as two new eyes opened up on her head.

"Give in Raven. It's in your blood." Eyesore said. Except in reality Eyesore wasn't saying anything, or moving, but Raven still saw her demonic visage reared back and slash out with a hand tipped with sharp claws.

She barely escaped being eviscerated, leaping back as the claws sliced her skin. And underneath her outfit, something amazing happened, as Raven's skin split open on its own accord, reacting to the data it had been receiving. Blood flowed, soaking Raven's stomach as she clutched the wounds.

"You will either become me or die Raven. It is inevitable." The false Raven said, as her claws reared back for another strike, this one to slice open Raven's neck.

And Raven screamed.

And a black bolt of energy flew from her and slammed into Eyesore, throwing her backwards with her own surprised scream. She hit the lockers at the far end of the room and fell to the ground.

And as Raven watched, the false her faded.

Zia, the homicidal personality, had designed the helmet well. Virtually no person would have the willpower to break out of the spell it forced on them. But Raven was far from normal, and her telepathic abilities had allowed her to look past the false data, as overpowering as it was, and strike at the true threat.

But just her. Robin had no such power. And if she didn't move fast, he wouldn't be around to possibly receive them in the future. Hey, stranger things had happened.

"Robin! Tim!" Raven said. She wasn't concerned with using Tim's name: the only one who could hear her was Eyesore and she was across the hall and busy with her own matters.

"Raven…run…"

"NO! IT'S NOT REAL!" Raven screamed. And as she did she tried to worm her way into Robin's head and shatter the false feed of data that had made Robin's body believe it had the Clench again. "IT'S! NOT! REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And she did it. 

Though it wasn't pleasant. Going from a near fatal fever and orifice hemorrhaging to a state of normality was a severe shock to Robin's body. If it hadn't been for Raven's guiding hand and a slight touch of her healing ability, Robin might have suffered a fatal shock to his system.

But he didn't, and hence was aware of a growling snarl as Eyesore got back up.

"So. Able to fight back. Fine then. It won't save you…!" Eyesore snarled.

Robin and Raven recoiled, covering their eyes just before another gigantic flash of light lit up the whole hallway. Robin, not sure when it had ended, was only aware of the sound of running feet before he instinctively turned up and got a flying kick straight to the head, courtesy of Eyesore. And without any chance to guard against it, the blow was devastating, throwing Robin a few feet into another set of lockers.

Raven tried her own offense, but Eyesore turned towards her and she instinctively teleported away before Eyesore's brain-warping pulse went off. Robin had his eyes on the ground and hence missed most of the flash, which kept him from being affected.

Enough so that he could dodge away as Eyesore turned and tried to kick him in the ribs. He rolled away and up, and then recoiled, covering his face just as the light went off. Eyesore seized her opportunity by delivering a vicious sidekick to Robin's unguarded midsection.

"Pretty good for just two months of tae kwon do, huh? My teacher said he never saw such a natural prodigy." Eyesore said, and followed up with a roundhouse that Robin blocked. With a yell, he punched to counter, but Eyesore's helmet lit up and he stopped the punch to cover his eyes. With a vicious grin, Eyesore leapt up and slashed her leg out, kicking Robin across the face and sending him flying again. He landed in a pile of bodies.

"How can you fight me if you can't even LOOK at me?" Eyesore asked.

Dark shadows appeared behind Eyesore, but she knew. Her helmet had sensors built in as well, and she turned and gave Raven a face-full of light. Raven screamed as she fell back into the shadows, as her skin began to burn like it had when she had reverted to her demon side, even as she frantically fought against the false images before they overwhelmed her.

Robin was back up, and he jumped and delivered his own kick. But Eyesore turned around, and he had to cover his eyes again. This time, she didn't set the flash off, but Robin learned that too late as she sidestepped his kick and shoved him into the lockers. He bounced off, rolled, and came up with his eyes closed. The flash was still so bright that while the data stream didn't make it through Robin still lost all his vision, and he stumbled back, trying to keep away from Eyesore so she couldn't sneak attack him again.

Raven appeared again, her mind cleared and her hood drawn shut over her face as she tried to find Eyesore with her ears. No luck, but she couldn't wait: Eyesore might run away while she was standing around blind and more people would die.

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" Raven yelled, seizing a bunch of lockers and ripping them from the walls, throwing them in front of her in a chaotic mess. She hoped that she would hit SOMETHING other then Robin, and she had gambled he had the dodging abilities to avoid her barrage.

She was wrong, as Robin only managed to dodge a few before she nailed him broadside, knocking him over with a yell. Raven winced.

"Robin! Where is she?" Raven asked.

Robin struggled to push the locker off of himself and answer the question. Then he saw, and his eyes went wide.

"RAVEN DU-!"

Too late. Eyesore had been behind Raven all along, having crept past her when she had first emerged and Eyesore had seen she had covered her eyes so that she couldn't be affected by her mind-altering ability. And she struck, lashing a knife-edged chop into the side of Raven's neck, momentarily interrupting the main blood flow to the brain and stunning Raven, who staggered and was hence vulnerable as Eyesore spun her around and slammed her palm into Raven's face. Raven reeled backward and collapsed, blood gushing from her nose.

"Hard to fight what you can't see, eh?" Eyesore commented. Then her own eyes turned to Robin as he finally got the locker off of him and stood up, his back to Eyesore and his eyes closed.

"Wising up Boy Wonder? I ask you then…if you can't look at me…can you find me if I stop talking?" Eyesore said, and went silent.

Robin heard her, barely, but he was focused on other things. He was deep in concentration, recalling the many things that Batman had taught him in combat, trying to reach out with his other senses.

Which was a lot harder then it seemed. It was amazing how much people relied on sight, and how crippled they were without it. But for Robin, failure wasn't an option. He had to stop her.

But he couldn't hear anything except some far off noises of yelling and maybe a siren or two. The hallway seemed as deserted as a ghost town. But Robin KNEW Eyesore was still there.

And she was, sneaking up on him. When she got close, she was going to kick him in the windpipe, crushing it. Even Robin needed to breathe.

So she, as quietly as possible, crept up on him.

And Robin stood there.

The moment hung in time.

And then Robin turned and hurled a Birdarang.

Eyesore gasped as the projectile slammed into her helmet, and she shrieked as it shattered her right "eye", a storm of glass falling before her as she stumbled back. And no sooner did she regain her bearings then Robin was in the air and connecting with a powerful jump kick that connected with her head, shattering the other eye and throwing her on her back.

"IMPOSSIBLE! HOW!" Eyesore screamed.

"Nice try. But you set yourself up. This little slaughter of yours has left the floor covered in blood. I just had to listen carefully for the tiny splashes you were making and wait until you were too close to dodge. Just because you're out of sight doesn't mean you're out of mind." Robin said.

Eyesore hissed at him, but before she could do anything a dark claw of energy materialized from the ground and wrapped around her, pinning her arms to the side. Wiping her face, Raven turned Eyesore around to face her.

"Looks like it's lights out time." She said, preparing a telekinetic force bolt.

Eyesore chuckled.

"Hardly."

And the slots where Eyesore's multi-segmented glass crystal focusers had rested slid open, as two new eyes slid forward, replacing the broken ones.

"If I can't make you see the ugly truth, at least I can make you suffer!" Eyesore yelled.

The only thing that saved Raven was the fact that she let of her hold, as twin lasers suddenly blasted from the new "eyes". And these were true lasers that moved as fast as the speed of light. Had Raven not let go, she never could have dodged. Even the dodge she attempted didn't fully work, clipping her side and burning it even as the lasers flew on and drilled two small holes in the walls.

Eyesore landed and twisted her head, as two more of the glass segments lit up and blasted, raking the laser across the room. Robin ducked under just in time, as Eyesore was going for a sweep and not a direct hit. The laser swept over the lockers and effortlessly sliced them in half, carving a deep groove in the wall behind them. At least the laser only had enough intensity to do damage at a short distance.

Eyesore turned back to Raven, who disappeared into the shadows just in time to avoid three quick blasts. Yelling, Robin leapt at her, only to yelp in surprise as Eyesore fell back, grabbing Robin at the same time and throwing him over her. As Robin landed, Eyesore "kipped up" to her feet and turned.

A Birdarang flew at her. Eyesore blew it out of mid-air. Robin already had his staff out…before a sweeping blast sliced one end of it off. He goggled at that, as Eyesore raised a finger and chastised him with the "naughty naughty" motion.

Robin extended the other end and charged. He had one chance. He had noticed whatever segment of the eyes was going to fire lit up for a second beforehand. It was JUST enough time for his well-trained brain to figure out the angle and put himself where the laser wasn't. Because if he was still in the same spot as the laser when it fired, he was dead.

Eyesore blasted at him…and missed, slicing hitting only the walls and ceiling. With a snarl, she fired again. Same result. And Robin, knowing he could get her before she fired another shot, leapt and swung out his staff to smash her laser lenses.

His staff hit her arm instead, Eyesore sacrificing her limb to save her weapon. Robin flew over her, hit the ground, and started rolling like a maniac, barely avoiding the deadly beams as they swept behind him. But there was no cover, and by now Eyesore had realized she had to lead her shots…

A segment of locker, carved off by her beams, slammed into her back. She pitched forward, and then with a shriek she twisted her head and sliced the follow up locker projectile into three pieces. Raven vanished into the shadows before the beams caught her. She then did a very tricky technique she rarely used called "skipping", where she teleported again as soon as she arrived at her previous destination. The result was a series of shadowy portals appearing which Eyesore fired at, but by the time Eyesore had aimed Raven was already gone, and she just blasted more lines through the walls. Eyesore didn't let up though, running forward as she tried to land a shot.

"Hey!"

Eyesore turned as Robin hurled something at her. Stupid fuck. He gave himself away, as she locked on and blasted…

The explosive disc he had hurled. He had wanted her to know he was doing that and react.

The disc blew up in her face, not close enough for the explosion to do any damage but close enough so that Eyesore caught the full brunt of the shockwave, throwing her backwards. She hit the wall and crashed through it in a hail of bricks and plaster. Normally, the wall would have been too tough for her to go through, but all her missed laser blasts had carved through it repeatedly and weakened it enough so that Eyesore went through it, blasting out into the sunlight.

The crowd gathered outside made a noise of surprise and fear as she crashed through the wall. Eyesore bounced a few times and came to rest, pain wracking her form.

She ignored it. Indeed, she almost welcomed it. Marissa, who no longer had any control but as been whimpering and whining ever since Zia had started her campaign of revenge for her, would have given out long ago, but Zia refused to. She was running on a high-octane cocktail of homicidal fury and righteous indignation, and she wouldn't stop even if the Titans ripped her heart out.

And they wouldn't. Zia, or Eyesore, got to her feet as she reached for the pouch pocket she had sewn into one leg of her pants. The two had shattered her hallucination crystals, but she had built a couple more. Her laser lenses, and these. And she would use it to destroy the Titans and everyone else, as she snapped her new lenses over the laser ones.

And the back of her helmet shifted, the red pulsing electronic wires turning over and being replaced by solar panels. She had built the helmet well, and the sun was shining brightly. It would only take her several seconds to charge the energy.

"Should we fire?" one of the police officers on the scene was saying. It was at that time that Raven and Robin came out of the hole, not having seen Eyesore adjust her helmet and foolishly assuming by her posture that she was badly hurt.

"Marissa…we can stop this! We'll get you help. We'll punish the man who did this. Please, you don't have to kill any more…" Robin said. Normally he would have charged headlong into battle, but in front of the students gathered only a few dozen feet away from them with the police and rescue vehicles and the parents who had come when they heard their children were in danger, he was reminded that he had said violence wasn't always the answer, and maybe, just maybe…

"Trying to help Titans…" Eyesore said. "TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE."

Eyesore glanced at the crowd, and then she turned towards them.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT!?!" she screamed. "YOU DID THIS! ALL OF YOU! You, with your willful ignorance and your bottomless stores of conservatism and bigotry! You, who dared to look at me like I was ugly, when inside all of you are uglier then I COULD EVER TRY TO BE! THIS IS WHAT YOU DESERVE! SAMSON HAS COME TO PULL THE TEMPLE DOWN ON YOUR IGNORANT HYPOCRITICAL PATHETIC WORTHLESS LITTLE HEADS, YOU FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT! CARRIE WHITE _AIN'T GOT NOTHING_ **_ON ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"_**

And Eyesore turned back the two Titans as her lenses lit up and then fired twin blasts of supercharged solar energy at the two. Thankfully, this was slower then her lasers, but it made up for it in sheer force as the two dodged and then were tossed aside like rag dolls by the powerful explosion that caused the whole side of the school to shudder and collapse.

Robin came to a stop near Eyesore, and she immediately turned towards him. Her whole helmet front lit up, and Robin ran like a madman as she unleashed a barrage of explosive blasts (rather then just one big one) Explosions rattled at Robin's heels, but even in that situation his mind was on top of things and he hurled a freeze disc at Eyesore. Eyesore dodged it…

Right into the telekinetic blast from Raven, throwing her backwards again. She landed near the crowd. With a snarling scream, she got up and blasted off another gigantic blast at Raven. Raven dodged it and another part of the school exploded as the blast struck it. That was it for the crowd: they erupted into full born panic and stampeded.

"Shoot her! Before she causes any more trouble!" one of the cops yelled.

"I can't! I'll hit someone!" another one replied. There were only a few units on the scene: SWAT and more backup hadn't arrived yet.

"HI-YAH!" Robin yelled as he leapt in, hurling twin Birdarangs. Eyesore crossed her arms and took the full brunt of both of them somehow still staying up. She fired more blasts out of her helmet, and this time Robin couldn't get away as he was enveloped in explosions and thrown backwards, smoking.

Eyesore turned back to the crowd, a cruel smile crossing her face.

"How could I forget?" she said, as her helmet lit up again.

"NO!" Raven screamed as she flew down and put herself between Eyesore and the crowd, her eyes glowing with dark energy as she formed the widest black shield she could.

Eyesore fired. The explosion blew a huge wave of dust into the air. Eyesore's shadowy profile appeared in it before she did, looking for her carnage.

All she found was a fleeing crowd and a still standing Raven, her shield having faded to a circular dome around her. But it had held.

Zia's teeth gritted so hard she nearly cracked her own jaw.

"Fine then. BYE BYE BLACKBIRD!" Eyesore yelled and opened fire on Raven with an onslaught of solar energy blasts. Raven moaned under the pressure and then screamed as her shield shattered and the last two blasts caught her dead center, blowing her back into a group of several people.

To Eyesore's surprise, they managed to catch her, sort of. With a growl, she started recharging her helmet. Why knock down a single pin when you can go for a strike…

"MARISSA!"

And Robin swooped in from the smoke, hurling an explosive disc that detonated in front of Eyesore, knocking her back and down. Somehow, Eyesore got even angrier, as Robin landed and immediately leapt at her again.

"MY NAME IS ZIA!" Eyesore screamed, and fired a super blast at Robin. It should have incinerated him…except he did a nigh-impossible mid-air dodging/ducking maneuver under the blast, burning his cape off as he hit the ground, rolled, and lanced a foot into Eyesore's gut.

"We won't let you kill anyone else!" Robin said, as he bounded over. He snapped out his arm and Eyesore blocked it, but he turned it into a judo throw and hurled her to the ground. He flipped and tried to drive his heel into her midsection, but she rolled away and slashed out her leg, hitting Robin across the face with her heel. Back up, she tried to blast Robin only to have him spring off the ground with his hands and slam both feet across her face. Staggered, Robin whipped out his staff and rammed it into Eyesore's gut. She doubled over, and with a hacking cough, blood spilled from her mouth.

"Zia is it? Well, whoever it is, you made it come to this. I no longer care what happens to you. You must be stopped! BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!" Robin said, and leapt. Eyesore ducked under his kick and slammed her elbow into his spine. Robin rolled with the blow, dropping his staff, and came up with a cracking jab to the side of Eyesore's head, denting her helmet. She countered by clawing her nails across his face, and then kicking him in the balls (which hurt, but Robin had a cup), and then grabbing his head and slamming it into her knee. But as Robin reeled back, he lashed out with a brutal backhand, and then backflipped, grabbing up his dropped staff, and brought the staff up under Eyesore's chin. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she reeled back, and Robin spun and struck with all his might, slamming his staff across Eyesore's head in a home run swing that smashed her helmet's lenses and nearly ripped it right off her face as she flew up and came down hard.

With a scream, Robin leapt up and came down, lancing the staff at Eyesore's head.

He didn't know what it was. A change in body language, the lack of any kind of counter maneuver, hell, maybe a whole different aura.

Or maybe it was somehow in all the chaos, the blood pounding in his head, the adrenaline coursing through his veins, he heard her.

"Don't hurt me…"

This wasn't Zia's tone. All the harshness, the bitterness, the rage, was gone. Replaced was a mousy tone that should have been impossible for Robin to hear.

The staff slammed into the ground next to Eyesore's head.

No. Not Eyesore anymore. The girl, cringing away, was pulling the destroyed helmet off, revealing a pretty Hispanic girl whose face was battered and bruised, blood leaking from her nose and mouth, and cowering away from Robin like he was a demon.

And Robin understood.

"Marissa?"

"Don't hurt me…please…Daddy don't…" Marissa whimpered. She clearly had no idea what was going on. She was in her own world of pain.

Robin realized he had forgotten his own diagnosis. DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder. The bad personality was gone. The original girl, the one whose abuse had prompted the creation of the bad one, Zia, was back.

All of Robin's anger faded away, replaced by sympathy. He pulled his staff out and out it away, kneeling down next to Marissa as she quietly sobbed.

"It's ok. I'll be ok now." Robin said, trying to stroke her hair.

And hence he didn't see her arm as it snuck down to her leg, but he definitely saw her eyes as the pain and fear disappeared. This wasn't an actor revealing his fakery, this was a complete change, as the brown eyes of Marissa went from dull to blazing.

"It'll NEVER be alright."

And then Zia pulled the gun she had stolen from her father's closet that morning from the other pocket she had sewn into her pants, jammed it into Robin's chest, and fired it four times.

Robin was lucky he was Batman's protégé, for the fact that Batman always made sure his and his 'family's' outfits were made of the best body armour known to man. So great was Robin's chest piece that it managed to stop all four shots at point-blank range.

However, there was nothing it could do about the terrible impact of the shots, knocking Robin backwards as pain bloomed in his chest, broken ribs stabbing inward and coming close to his heart and lungs. The pain was so great even Robin couldn't shrug it off, as he fell and didn't get up.

Zia did, holding the gun on Robin. She, unlike the host, that useless whimpering Marissa, had prepared for anything. If her helmet had a problem, she always had a gun. She…

Found herself fading as Marissa again resumed control, her face filling with horror.

"No…I don't…"

"YES! YOU DO!" Zia snarled as she was back. "He deserved it! They all did! Why can't you see that? They knew and did nothing! They knew and they judged! THEY'RE ALL FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT, AND THEY ALL DESERVE TO DIE!"

"Robin!" Raven said, appearing next to her leader. She had just seen him get shot, and she didn't know if the bullets had penetrated or not, so her first thought was to heal him and to do that she had to be close.

"It doesn't…have to be this way Marissa…" Robin said. Raven looked at the girl as the gun wobbled in its aiming at them, but it still stayed fixed on the two Titans. Raven was ready to stop any more bullets.

"Robin…" Marissa said, and then Zia was back.

"SHUT UP! DON'T LISTEN! HE KNOWS NOTHING!" Zia screamed.

"It doesn't…" Robin said.

"FUCK YOU! You think this thing is one-sided Boy Wonder? You think I'm some kind of interloper? You fuck. SHE MADE ME! I WAS THE ONE SHE HID BEHIND WHEN SHE COULDN'T TAKE THE PAIN ANY MORE! I'M WHAT SHE NEEDS! I'M WHAT ALL OF YOU FUCKING SICK FAILURES DESERVE!"

"I…didn't know…" Robin said.

"And if you did, you've had done nothing. You'd have shunned, and denied, and judged. FUCK THIS WHOLE FUCKING CITY AND FUCK YOU! YOU'RE ALL FUCKING PIECES OF SHIT, AND YOU ALL DESERVE TO DIE! AND I'M GOING TO MAKE DAMN SURE THAT I KILL EVERY SINGLE DAMN ONE OF…!"

And then Zia's grip loosened, her fury fading as she was replaced by Marissa, and the pain and agony that appeared on the girl's face and ripped through her being was so great that Raven, the empath, nearly passed out from feeling it.

"Marissa…I promise you…we will do something now…" Robin said.

"No…" Marissa said. Robin's eyes widened as she removed the gun from its position facing them. "I…didn't…"

"NO! THEY NEED TO BE KILLED!" Zia screamed, and then Marissa was back.

"No…I never wanted to hurt…them…I wanted…" Marissa said quietly.

And then she put the gun up against her head.

"NOOOOOOO!" Robin screamed, even as Raven instinctively raised her hand and tried to push the gun away…

BLAM!

For a moment, everything was still, and then Marissa Mori crumbled to the ground like a broken doll.

"No…" Robin said, vaguely aware of Raven fixing his ribs, a move she was basically doing on autopilot, as she was stunned into total immobile silence.

Robin got up and ran over, falling to his knees next to the girl as blood leaked from her head.

And despite all the chaos around them, the police finally running in, Raven joining him by his side, Robin heard none of it.

All he was aware of was Marissa, and him, and the gulf he had known about too late and not known enough to cross.

************************

A loud banging startled Mitch Mori out of his stupor.

"I DON'T WANT ANY!" he yelled. The banging continued. "All right you fucker I'll show you to bother a man…"

Mitch Mori got up, a sweaty unpleasant man in his early forties, and walked over to the door, opening it.

"Are you Mitch Mori?" a voice said on the other side while Mitch was opening it.

"Yeah yeah." He grumbled, finally getting the door open. "Now what do you…"

All Mitch Mori was aware of was a flash of bright colours dulled by dirt and soot and worse, and then Robin's fist slammed into his face.

Blood exploded from Mitch's nose as he stumbled back and hit the wall. But Mitch had been in some brawls in his lifetime, and he immediately was off the wall, lashing out with his own fist.

Which Robin effortlessly sidestepped under, driving his own fist right into Mitch's kidney, and as Mitch doubled over, he took a step to the side and spun, slamming his foot across Mitch's face. More blood sprayed as Mitch flew back and hit the wall.

His vision was blurry now, but Mitch was aware of two more people stepping into the door. Police. One looked at Mitch.

"Mitch Mori, you are under arrest for the rape and sexual assault against your daughter…you have the right…oh forget this. Robin, go ahead." The policeman said in disgust, and the two turned and began to leave. His face frozen in a mask of rage, Robin advanced again.

"No! You can't do this! You're the cops! Stop him!" Mitch whined.

"And you're a daughter-raping pedophile. He's saved more lives then I could count. Fuck you." The officer replied, and closed the door. Mitch, as bullies tended to be when confronted by someone who could actually fight back, turned eyes filled with fear towards Robin.

"I didn't do anything!" he whined.

"That's what you think. And that's why." Robin said.

The house filled with racket and screams, as the two officers stood on the lawn.

"I think we can also charge him for all the deaths that happened." One of them said.

"Can't charge the doer." The other replied, ignoring the chaos behind him.

They didn't speak for a bit. Some neighbors came out to see what the noise was, and the officers shooed them away, and then one of them radioed for an ambulance.

"You sure about that?" the other policeman said.

"He's a buddy of mine. He won't suspect anything."

"Which reminds me. Are you SURE about this? What if he kills him?"

"He won't." The officer said. "I saw it in his eyes."

The officer might have questioned his assessment if he could see Robin now, as he smashed the whole house in the process of pounding Mitch Mori into a bloody, broken mess. He hit him until every breath he took felt like fire in his lungs and his arms felt as heavy as lead and his knuckles were bruised and cracked and broken and he still hit him, because for all the damage he did he knew he couldn't take back what this sick man had done, to Marissa and all her victims. And so he kept hitting, and hitting, until blood was all over his hands and he could no longer raise his arms.

And he finally stopped, taking a few deep breaths, and then he turned and left the bloody ruin of the man behind him. No. He wasn't even a man. He was a deviance that happened to be surrounded by various tissues.

The alternative was far too bad for Robin to contemplate.

He opened the door, and the cops' eyes filled with shock and some worry.

"Robin…we went out on a limb for you…if you…"

"I avoided anything that would damage his nervous system or puncture a vital organ. Besides that…don't be surprised if he feels like he's filled with sand." Robin said, and began leaving. An ambulance pulled up at the curb.

The officers looked at each other. And in the end, neither got in any trouble. They said that Robin had insisted that he accompany them and when he had seen Mitch Mori he had gone insane. No one would blame the officers for not being able to subdue him. They were strong, tough men…but he was Robin. The police would make a few noises about pursuing obstruction of justice charges and then quietly drop it. They knew what the Titans did for their city. And they knew what Mitch Mori was.

There was the letter of the law, and then there was the spirit.

"Hey Robin? Feel better?" one of the policemen asked as Robin pulled out his grappling hook.

Robin looked back.

"No." he replied.

And then he was gone.

**************************

Raven stood quietly, looking out the window, as Robin came up next to her.

"They caught him?" Raven asked.

"Yes. He'll be charged with his crimes. But not for a while. I have a feeling he'll be in the hospital for a long, long time." Robin said. He'd tidied himself up a bit before he had come into the hospital.

Without having to say anything, Raven reached down and took his hands, healing Robin's injuries. It was the least she could do. She couldn't touch the deeper pain that knawed at him.

For a little while, they stood there.

Then a door opened behind them, and a doctor stepped out. Raven turned, and Robin followed her lead.

"Well, Dr. Nigel?" Raven asked.

"You can see her now. But don't be long, it's really not…proper." Dr. Nigel replied, and left.

Robin and Raven went into the room, each one of them standing on each side of the bed, looking down at the body of Marissa Mori.

"Nigel said my telekinetic push probably saved her life. The bullet miraculously missed any blood vessels. But…you can't…I didn't…" Raven said, and looked sadly at Robin. "He said that odds of her ever waking up are slim. And from what I read from him, he was hiding something because he didn't want to tell me the bleak truth. She's alive, and she's a not a vegetable…but she'll probably never wake up. The odds are against her at least."

Robin sucked in a breath of air through his nose.

"Let's…"

"Already have. Her bills won't be a problem. Least we could do…still…" Raven said.

The two Titans were silent.

"I hope…she found her peace…in this…" Robin said.

But the words were as empty as Eyesore's discarded helmet.

*********************

"Guys? Anyone home?" Robin said as he walked into the tower. Raven was ahead of him, and she picked up a note.

"Guys. Came back and found tower empty. Went on a double date with Gar, Latrisha is bringing a friend. Back late. Sincerely, Cyborg." Raven said. "Well, that answers that, but then where's…"

"Here." Robin said, picking up a note that was glued to the chair in front of the main computer. "Guys. Got call, went out, not sure when back, if we don't come back avenge our deaths. Rob." Robin said. He sighed. Gauntlet's notes tended to be very vague. Also, the last part of the note bothered him. In the life of a superhero, it could be too literal. But Robert was always joking. He was probably fine. Robin assumed Starfire and Terra were with him.

"You want to contact them?" Raven asked.

"No. They're probably ok." Robin said.

"Ok. You want to order some dinner?" Raven asked.

"Not hungry." Robin said, sitting down.

"You want to sit and brood on the terrible things and the fact that you can't do a damn thing to change them sometimes?" Raven asked.

Robin didn't reply. Raven sat down next to him, and in a move that even surprised her a bit, put an arm around his shoulder.

"I wonder…" Robin said. "I spoke of people needing to stop seeing difference as bad. But sometimes I wonder…would it be better if everyone WAS the same? Yeah, maybe if we were all blue-skinned bald asexual beings we'd lose all the things that define our species…but we also wouldn't have people like Marissa. And deviants like her father. Maybe it would be better. Everyone would be happy…maybe…I wonder…"

"Robin…let me ask you something…would you like to be learning disabled? Retarded, in a less PC term?"

"No…"

"Something you'll notice about retarded people. They tend to be, most of the time, stupidly happy. Ignorance IS bliss. Do you really think forcing ignorance on everyone would make the world better?"

"Definitely? No. But it's times like these…that I…wonder…" Robin said, unable to find a new word.

"All the same or everyone unique…I think we'd have problems either way. That's the way life is. Perfection is beyond our grasp. Problems are sewn into our minds, our hearts, our souls. Whether everyone is the same or not…makes no difference."

Robin didn't reply. Raven left it at that. He had to deal with the pain. She would help him, if he wanted. Perhaps he could help her. She hadn't watched all that had transpired with a heart of ice. What Marissa had become, due to her father's actions, broke her heart as well. But she could deal with it.

Such a simple choice, but one that human failing and cruel fate had denied the girl who had called herself Eyesore.

Raven felt Robin leaning against her, felt him starting to turn, and she knew what was happening.

"No Robin. This isn't the right thing."

Robin blinked.

"We both witnessed a tragedy. We're both human, and teenagers. I know what your body, in its altered state, is telling you. And yes. But if we do that…we may close one wound…and open a far larger one. People failed Marissa. Do you want us to follow their example and fail Kory and Noel?"

Robin blinked, and then he turned back so his back was against her.

"I'm glad I wasn't the only one feeling that way."

"I'd think something was wrong to you if you weren't. Besides, you're not my type." Raven said, smiling slightly.

"Noel's a lucky man."

"I know. So does he."

And so Robin and Raven sat on the couch and watched the stars, and pondered and wrestled and raged and soothed their feelings.

They didn't want anything…ugly…sticking around.

For when it comes to pretty things, they tend to be only skin deep.

But ugly goes clear to the bone.

_This arc is dedicated to a very special friend of mine._

_And to anyone who has ever bullied, harmed, insulted, maligned, slandered, and even teased someone else for any reason that did not have the person's best interests at heart, truly, for any reason that contained malice…_

_The legacy of Columbine can be two things. It can be a wake up call to the next generation…or it can be the seed for a very bitter harvest._

_Sadly, I believe it will be the latter._


	17. Evilution: Survival of the Fittest

Chapter 15: Survival of the Fittest

Robert wondered if there was some gene in scientists that always made them terrible decorators.

The room he was in was as usual, all gray. That might be because it was all made of metal, but they could have least have painted it. But the only colors were small red arrows to point in directions.

The room would usually have been filled with lab equipment and tables, but all of that was currently all piled in a corner in a big mess. The room was now filled with a dozen soldiers, several scientists (only two who were wearing lab coats, to at least avoid the cliché somewhat), and himself, along with Starfire and Terra, the new member.

And they were all in big trouble.

The soldiers were all positioned and ready, aiming their laser rifles at the door. The room they were in only exit was a small hallway that led to another, larger room filled with other experiments. It was their final fall back position: there would be nowhere else to run if they had to retreat.

Robert, being optimistic, was certain they wouldn't have to. Terra, on the hand, looked like she wanted to faint, as she knawed nervously on a fingernail.

"Relax! We can handle this Terra! You'll see!" Gauntlet said cheerily.

And suddenly, a small sizzling noise filled the room. A tiny bubble was forming on the metal door. The fact that it was four feet of solid high-density titanium and steel mix didn't matter, as several other such holes appeared, as well as a few red spots that indicated heat cutting.

"All arms ready!" the captain of the guard said. "Remember, short controlled bursts! And if one of those things gets one of your fellows in the head, consider him a casualty and do not hesitate! And remember, NO GRENADES!" he ordered. He quickly stepped over to where the three Titans were.

"We can't have you engaging in close range combat. Do any of you know how to use a rifle?"

"I had some basic firearm training on my home planet." Starfire said.

"Good enough. Here." The captain said, gesturing to one of the scientists, who came over carrying a large sack. The captain reached into it and pulled out three of the same rifles, handing them off.

"These are the best stuff. Hardly any kick. Please, try not to shoot any of my men." The captain said, and turned, bringing his own gun to bear as he took up his position.

"These seem simple enough." Starfire said, aiming her gun.

"You ok Terra?" Gauntlet asked. Terra was looking at her new gun like she was holding the Holy Grail.

"Yeah. I'm ok. If anything comes after me, I'll just pull the trigger until it goes away." Terra said.

"That's the spirit!" Gauntlet said, giving her a thumbs up.

"Room breach imminent! You have twenty seconds at most!" one of the scientists, a female, said, looking at a hand held monitor. Robert had taken a look earlier: the female had programmed it to show what areas were still safe and which areas had been contaminated.

Which was every other area except these two rooms.

"Soldiers, what do we say?" the captain yelled.

"Don't die for your country! Make the other bastard die for his!" all the soldiers chanted.

And then the hole was fully formed, and it came forth.

**************************

You're probably wondering what's going on. For the answer to that, we must look back a few hours…

(waving flashback lines)

"Ohhhhh, trippy!" Robert said.

**************************

The T-Tower, about 12:30 PM.

At this time, Robin and Raven are at Jump City High School, preparing for the lecture that will eventually led them to their confrontation with Marissa Mori's homicidal alter, Zia, and her Eyesore persona.

And Beast Boy and Cyborg are out in Jump City, trying to spiff themselves up for the double date they will eventually go on. Having met Latrisha Dryce, a very attractive black girl, the Titans can see why Cyborg would want to impress her.

Noel is off with Katherine and Naomi, doing whatever they were doing.

The only actual resident of the Tower is Starfire, who is on monitor duty, and is currently reading to try and improve her English.

And as for Gauntlet and Terra, they are outside, training.

"Ok Terra, I just want you to relax. Let it go, don't let yourself feel-AHHHHHH!" Gauntlet yelped as a massive earthquake rocked the island. In her room, Starfire shrieked as she fell over, her book falling over her face.

"Oh I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Terra whimpered. She wished she hadn't listened. But Robert had convinced her to stay, and he was even trying to train her, but she kept failing…maybe she should just leave.

"Entirely my fault." Gauntlet said. "Ok, relaxing isn't working…all right, bottle it up! Focus it all away, so that you don't-YEEEEEKKKKK!" Gauntlet again yelped as another massive earthquake shook the island. Starfire was just getting up, and she fell down again, cursing in Tamaran. Terra looked miserable.

"I can't do this! I know it!"

"Terra, RELAX. You CAN do this. People may think I'm a goof, but I know talent when I see it. That's why I'M training you." Gauntlet said. "Ok, let's give this some thought. It's clear you have SOME control over your powers, as exhibited you haven't called up a 10.0 after having a nightmare. I think your problem lies in fear of tapping your talent. In that case, we may have to put you in a situation that you don't think, you act."

"Um, ok, then what do you-ACK!" Terra gasped as Gauntlet's shimmering force field flowed out and over her. In a moment, Rob was sitting on her back in a crude chair. "You have to be kidding!"

"Questions no ask! Master I am now!" Rob said in his best Yoda, which was actually pretty good. "Gauntlet taking most of weight anyway! How, I know not! Now, to obstacle course we go! Padawan, mush!"

Grumbling, Terra concentrated, and was surprised when she actually managed to yank a chunk out of the ground beneath her and levitate it up under her, as she flew to the obstacle course.

****************

Meanwhile, Beast Boy and Cyborg were doing…something, I don't know, I thought a break would go good here.

"Hey man, this is neglect!"

Hush Cyborg. I already gave you your own mini-arc. Go eat your ice cream.

"We're not eating ice cream!"

YOU ARE NOW!

"But unless I treat my throat with chemicals it-AHHHHHH!" Cyborg yelled as he began to malfunction.

Heh heh heh…maybe I should move on…

***************

"I don't see why I should do this. I already aced this." Terra said.

"Improvements, Victor made! Question, you must not! You must do! Or do not! But there is no try, remember!"

"Ok Rob, tell you what. I'll do this if you stop talking in that bloody Yoda voice! If you don't, my first training exercise will be making a catapult out of earth to see how far I can throw you!"

"Ok ok. Killjoy." Rob sulked.

"Where?"

"Not the villain."

"Oh." Terra said. "What kind of improvements has Victor made?"

Two hoses suddenly extended from the ground and blasted a powerful stream of water, splashing into Terra and throwing her backwards with a cry. Gauntlet had leapt off a second earlier.

"Those, for example." Gauntlet said. Terra, wet and muddy, got up, an ugly look on her face as she waved her hand. The earth rose up next to the hoses and covered them in hundreds of pounds of mud.

"You might wanna watch out for the new disc shooters as well." Gauntlet said. Terra turned towards the course.

"I didn't say they were in front of you."

The discs thudded into Terra's back, sending her flying forward again. Gauntlet caught her with her force field and then grabbed one of the discs with it, throwing it back, getting both disc shooters with a carefully aimed ricochet.

"Ok, we better be going. Clock's ticking." Gauntlet said. Looking mad, Terra was suddenly clean as she willed the mud off of her, and then she pulled a rock out from under the ground and jumped on it. Gauntlet hopped on her rock, and then on her back again.

"Hey!"

"Be glad I'm not Noel. He'd be making you juggle mountains or something." Gauntlet said.

"Is he really that strict?"

"He might claim Asphyxiation or Slade as his mortal enemy, but the truth is his mortal enemy is Fun." Gauntlet said, as Terra zipped and dodged the discs and nets. "Ok Terra, lesson number 1. It doesn't matter if you take shortcuts."

"It doesn't?" Terra said, and then swung her rock in a sharp arc, trying to cut through the corner of a course.

Which made four new disc shooters come out and begin a barrage even she couldn't escape from. With a scream, she and Gauntlet tumbled off the rock and fell to the ground.

"What the hell was that about! You almost got us both killed!" Terra said.

"Lesson Number 2. The bad guys ALWAYS have more guns then us. So it's best to be always be prepared…"

Two new disc shooters popped out of the ground.

A second later twin rocks flew through them, destroying them. Gauntlet looked pleased.

"Lesson Number 3. The fact that they actually HAVE so many guns will always decrease the efficiency of their defenses. Also known as the Law of Inverse Minion Effectiveness."

"Is that why you were arguing with Gar last night that a fight between a pirate and a ninja would be cooler then a fight between a pirate and an army of ninjas?"

"Yep."

And then the ground split open beneath the two Titans. A second later they floated out of the hole on a large rock, even as more disc shooters opened up.

"Another thing Terra. The weapons have been painted to blend into the ground. You know what that means?"

"Yeah." Terra said. "PANCAKE TIME!"

She thrust out her hand.

Nothing happened.

"Hey!" Terra protested as more discs flew at her. Gauntlet knocked them out of the way with his shield.

"Lesson Number 4. It's amazing what you can do with plastics these days."

Terra just grunted as she flew the rock forward, but several seconds later she stopped as she heard a beeping. It was coming from Gauntlet's belt, as he pulled out his communicator.

"That's our emergency signal. Session over!" Gauntlet yelled. The course shut down. "To the Tower! Hi-yo Silver, AWWWWWWWAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!"

Terra didn't move.

"I said…"

The rock took off, nearly causing Gauntlet to fall off of it.

"Your timing sucks!" he yelled.

"My timing or your balance?" Terra replied.

********************

Starfire looked grim when Gauntlet and Terra walked in.

"What's up Kor?" Rob said.

"By my viewpoint the ceiling, as Gar might say, but as for the problem, I am unsure. All I know is that we received a distress call, and it came from S.T.A.R Labs."

"The super-science people? What did they want?" Rob asked.

"The call was very short. Hence my own distress. Listen." Starfire said, as she turned around and played back the call.

"TITANS HEADQUARTERS!?! IS THIS TITANS HEAD…"a frantic voice yelled, the rest was lost in crackling.

"This is Starfire." Starfire replied.

"This is Star Labs! Your section! We need your help! That mutant you caught broke out!"

"Which one?" Starfire asked, and her question was genuine.

" (crackle) now! We need help, it's ch(crackle), everywhere! HELP! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH….!"

And then the line went dead.

"That was all I received. My attempts to back trace or pick up a new call were unsuccessful. But I gather that the situation is dire." Starfire said.

"Ok then, we'll call…" Rob began.

"No Rob. Well, yes. We will call the others. But we cannot wait for them. This situation sounds like we need to hasten our arrival as much as possible. As the saying goes, we must "beat feet". Unless you really think we should wait, but by the time all the others had arrived, it may be too late. We'll send a distress signal, but as for us I say we have to go to the lab now."

"Sounds good." Rob said. Terra looked at Rob like he was insane.

"Ok, we must go!" Starfire said, as she set the computer. Rob jotted off a quick note and stuck it on the monitor as well.

"Wait, isn't Star Labs in Metropolis?" Terra asked.

"The main branch. But they've got several splinter offshoots near each of the major cities. Gotham, Keystone, Star City, here. We tend to attract the weird mutations that they want to study. The fact that they have the only way of usually holding the mutants makes it a good deal for us. Come on, let's go!" Gauntlet said, as a window opened. Starfire flew out, and a few seconds later, Terra followed on a rock, Gauntlet with her.

And the other Titans might have joined them…had the distress signal not only beeped for twenty seconds. Then it mysteriously…failed.

Why?

Who knows…we must follow the Titans now, who believe they will soon be joined by aid. But the truth is, they're all alone…

***********************

"THIS is the entrance to the splinter section?" Terra said.

"Yes. I looked over the directions before you arrived, I am certain of it." Starfire said, going into the convenience store.

She opened the door with the tinkling of a bell. She looked to speak with the clerk…and found he was gone. The shop was deserted.

And had apparently been for some time, as a fair amount of food was on the ground, the result of smash and grab teenagers. Starfire ignored the mess, walking forward, followed by Gauntlet and Terra.

"What are we doing here anyway Star? Are we stopping for a Slim Jim and a Slurpee?" Rob asked.

"This is the front. If I remember correctly…" Starfire said, walking to the back and stopping in front of the fridge. The section that had the alcohol beverages.

"Star! I NEVER knew!" Gauntlet said, bringing his hand to his mouth.

"I'm not going to DRINK it Rob." Starfire said, as she opened the fridge, her fingers searching to the side and finding a small button. The beer section swung out, revealing a steel door. Starfire leaned down and a small section opened, scanning her eye. A keypad swung open, and Starfire keyed in the password (which in case you were wondering, was ARCTURUS, a group of stars). With a crackling noise, wheels rolled and pulled the door up, revealing a fair sized elevator. Rob arched an eyebrow.

"How did you know about THIS?"

"We all have clearance to enter. In case something happens. Which appears to have happened. I assume. Wish I knew." Starfire said.

"Why don't I have one of these?"

"You haven't been a member long enough."

"What about Noel?"

"Yes he has one."

"Awwwwwwwww." Gauntlet said as he and Terra followed Starfire. The door closed, but it took nearly twenty seconds for the elevator to start moving. And it was a VERY slow trip.

Which was ok. The Titans used it to talk.

"Who are we fighting?" Rob asked.

"Well, I'm not sure. We've dealt with several mutants. There was that group, the Twist that tried to take over Jump City in the wake of the Final Night. Then there was Slaughterhouse, a bull mutation. And then there was Aberration, who was everything and nothing at the same time. He ate Robin."

"He seems to have handled it well."

"Yes. Then there was Asphalt, he could merge with tar and concrete…and there was Trump Card, she could control various inanimate objects…I think that's everyone Star Labs took…but there might be others…"

The elevator came to a stop.

"And if so we'll have to find out." Starfire said. Rob shrugged and with a thought converted the Gauntlet to battle mode.

"Anything else we should know?"

"Oh yes. One two and four, lighting them on fire is good. Three and five, lighting them on fire is bad."

"Great…which is which again?"

The doors opened.

One could immediately tell there was something wrong with the place. The floor and walls were scarred with sooty marks, burns from some kind of heart source. Starbolts charged, Starfire leapt out, aiming both ways. Gauntlet followed, at the ready, and Terra, not sure what to do, brought up the rear.

Nothing.

Literally. All there was were the burn marks. There was no blood. No bodies. No discarded equipment. A battle without a mark.

A loud sound made everyone's hearts jump into their throats, and they whirled…only to nearly destroy the closing elevator doors. As the teens watched, two more doors slid shut and locked tight.

"Great. How do we get out?" Terra joked.

"I think we might need to find a worker. Hello? Is anyone there??" Starfire called. Her words echoed down the hallway. Contrary to the cliché, they were actually brightly lit. Which was somehow worse. Now you could fully see whatever was coming after you.

"Hello? Hellllooooo…" Starfire said, floating up and gesturing the two to follow her. They did.

"Rob!" Terra whispered.

"Yeah?"

"There's no rocks here! Not a one! They're all behind the walls! What should I do?"

"Can you break the walls?"

"Rob I was born at night but not LAST night! What's the structural integrity of this place? If I rip open the walls for rocks I could collapse the whole place on our heads!"

"…Good point. Well, there must be something you can do. Without hopefully causing a volcanic eruption in here."

"I'll try."

"Good. Nice to know your hair colour doesn't belay your intelligence."

"A blonde joke? That is SO typical…" Terra said, as they rounded the corner. More marks of the same, and a few overturned pieces of furniture. The lights weren't so good here: they flickered and jumped, casting shadows that made Robert uneasy. Near the end of the hallway, it split into two sections. Those didn't have any lights at all, the hallways vanishing into darkness.

No wait…it wasn't just overturned furniture in the hallway. It was tables. Set up as…crude cover positions.

And Starfire, typing away at a monitor that was at the corner junction.

"Whacha doing?" Terra said, as Rob examined the tables.

"Trying to get an idea on what happened here. I don't know enough about their system to call up security camera footage…but I can call this up…" Starfire said. A map appeared on the screen, filled with blinking dots.

"This shows all the positions of the personal here in the last hour. If I remember correctly, this is the main lab, going down here is the main security chamber…and here's…" Starfire went on for a bit.

"Kory, could you get to the point of what happened here?"

"Ok, well, if I play it in fast motion, this."

The map's green dots stayed in place for a bit, and then in the main lab the green dots began multiplying rapidly. At the same time, other green dots began to disappear.

"What's going on?"

"Each green dot is a living organism, but this setup is too crude to tell the difference between them." Starfire said.

More green dots moved towards the multiplying room, and then more, and more, as the green dots began leaving the room. The advance continued, until virtually all the green dots were in one location. Then the bottom group began to retreat, followed by the others. As the bottom group went past the straggling green dots, they joined the mass, followed by the attacking group. The mass went on, leaving behind only a small group of green dots in the area Starfire had identified as the main security chamber. The retreating mass of green dots continued to lose members, while the following mass kept losing and regaining them. Finally the dots went around the corner where the three Titans were standing, stayed there for a bit as a battle apparently raged, and then they went on. The map ended in a forked hallway: the green dots went down one prong and the others followed.

"That's it. And it's all I can access: I don't have the clearance for anything else." Starfire said. "What do you think?"

"Let's see…" Gauntlet said. He took a few steps back and began miming out his thoughts. "Everything's going normally, and then something breaks out of the main lab. It replicates or something, and starts killing the scientists. The soldiers come, and a great battle happens. The soldiers call their reinforcements, but it's still too powerful. They retreat, picking up all the remaining humans, and I'll assume this is when the message was sent. And so the battle goes, all the way around…and past us…and onward to whatever result happened." Rob said. In truth, Robert Candide had a brain on him: you just had to separate him from all potentially interesting stimuli for it to gain dominance.

"Yes, but that leaves unanswered questions. How long ago did this happen? Why didn't the people just retreat from this underground facility entirely? And what are the remaining dots over here?" Starfire said, indicating the security chamber.

"I think I have an answer for that. That's where they stored the dangerous mutations. When this happened, security measures must have sealed them up very tightly. Hopefully they'll stay that way." Gauntlet said.

"Yes…but I still have one question…this battle we theorized…who won?"

"I think we may have our answer soon." Terra said. Starfire and Gauntlet turned to look at her. She had knelt down, pressing the tips of her fingers to the ground.

"I took your advice to heart Rob. I concentrated, really…and I'm reading the vibrations of the floor. And if I'm reading them right…something's coming back this way." Terra said.

The Titans looked at each other, and then they charged up and snuck down the hallway. Terra, not sure what else to do, pulled a leg off the table and brought it along as a club. Hey, even if she couldn't use her powers, she could still…hit something over the head. I mean, nothing liked being hit over the head, right? Right?

Carefully, the three crept down the hall, the only sound the noise of their breathing, as they carefully arrived at the corner, as they hear very faint noises on the other side, so slight to be unreadable. It could be anything.

The three took a deep breath.

And then Starfire signaled.

"HAAAAAAAAAA…" the Titans yelled as they looped around the corner.

"…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Echoed the twenty or so soldiers who were now all pointing guns at them.

"AH! DON'T SHOOT! I DON'T WANNA DIE!" Terra yelped, ducking behind Rob.

"Stand down men! It's not the mutation!" a voice boomed. As the men, and a few women, holstered their guns, the man we saw earlier (or more accurately, later) as the captain stepped forward.

"Teen Titans, I presume?" he asked.

"No sorry old bean! Dr.Livingstone at your service!" Gauntlet said, offering his hand. The captain just glared at him.

"At ease for the moment men. But keep an eye on the motion trackers! We don't want that son of a bitch sneaking up on us." The captain said. The soldiers parted, allowing about ten new men and women, some wearing dirty lab coats, to step through. Three of the larger men were carrying large knapsacks.

"You made it!" one of the more "traditional" looking scientists said, as in thin and bespectacled. "I was worried Dr. Lincoln's message was made in vain!"

"It was not. What has happened here?" Starfire asked. 

"You don't know?"

"The message was flawed. All we got was a sense of urgency. We were the only ones close. We sent a distress signal, but even if it is received, I am not sure if our allies can get in." Starfire said. She had spent enough time with Tim to have adapted his professional mannerisms in a combat situation.

"Oh dear. This could be very bad."

"What is the problem?" Rob asked.

"It's Anton Hensen." The scientist replied. Rob looked confused, but a look of worried recognition crossed Starfire's face.

"Who?" Gauntlet asked.

"Aberration." Starfire replied.

***********************

If you have forgotten, Anton Hensen was a masochistic and depressed doctor who, after being dumped by his girlfriend, had tried to commit suicide by locking himself into his workstation and injecting as many random chemicals into himself as he could grab. As things tended to go in this world, he did not die. Instead he mutated into the constantly shifting monstrosity dubbed Aberration. After a long battle in the streets of Jump City and later in the T-Tower, the Titans had defeated Hensen, or Aberration, as Hensen's mind had long since disintegrated into the chaotic mass of tissue, with the aid of an unlikely ally: Leonard Snart, aka the Flash villain Captain Cold. It had been Snart's freeze ray that had provided the key to victory: heat made Aberration's cells mutate at an even faster rate then normal, so cold, as the way balances worked in this world, stopped him. His pieces had then been shipped to Star Labs for study.

"And they were fascinating, really, I know that's cliché but they WERE." Dr. Stereotype Scientist said. "Normal organisms can mutant to survive, but the Ab deviance, that's what we call it, is such a mess that it keeps mutating, even when it doesn't want or need to. It can't STOP. I think that if we had somehow stopped the mutations, the cells would die. And we tried, but even keeping the cells on ice didn't stop them, it just slowed them down."

"Just curious…WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING EXPERIMENTING ON THE CELLS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?!?!?" Rob yelled. 

"Er…we had several interesting…theories…" Dr. SS said. Rob facevaulted.

"So you basically said "Hey, here's a bee's nest, let's poke it and see what comes out!" Rob said. "You know, I've said it before and I'll say it again, but how can so many people who are so smart be so STUPID?"

"Excuse me, we didn't just blunder around without any idea of where we were going! We took very careful precautions. We designed this facility so that freeze rays were stationed behind the walls to subdue a sample if it escaped. And we made sure we didn't expose any of the samples to heat of any kind!"

"So what happened?" Starfire asked.

"Well…we made an error."

"But of COURSE." Rob said.

"We assumed that the intelligence of the beast was at a low state when it was frozen and shattered. We gathered that even if a piece could escape, it would seek out food and heat sources, and once it reached a certain mass the freeze rays would automatically deploy. And we also assumed that since the pieces were frozen, any beneficial mutation would be drastically slowed down and we would be able to see it coming well in advance. But we were wrong. The Ab deviance appears to have managed to mutate…well, I think it's some kind of advanced hive mental condition."

"What?" Terra asked.

"It changed itself so it was a bunch of small pieces that together were all REALLY smart." Rob said. "What happened then?"

"Well, we had taken the pieces to the main lab for study…one escaped. But it didn't try for a heat source or a source of nutrition. Instead it sprouted legs and ran over to the closest piece of it, freeing it. And then those two did the same, and then…we tried to stop them, but they moved too fast! Before we knew it we were overwhelmed."

"Why didn't the freeze rays deploy?"

"Ah, funny you should mention that…you see, we programmed them to deploy once the Ab deviance reached a certain mass so it didn't accidentally freeze a human or one of our other projects…somehow the mutation seemed to have figured that…out…"

"Or maybe it just LISTENED to your scientists yakking away, assuming that it couldn't hear you because you would see it mutate EARS!" Rob yelled. We are not sure why Rob has become so irritated. Maybe the underground lab is depressing him for its lack of pretty colors.

"In any case, the pieces didn't fuse together. They all stayed small. And they attacked en masse…killing…eating…it was horrible…" Dr. SS said. "But all the parts that ate only gained so much mass and then stopped. It seemed more concerned with killing us then growing. I think…I think it knows that if we're here, we can stop it. So it wants to kill all of us…and then it can escape the facility unhindered…and once it does…"

"All the pieces comes together and Jump City becomes a smorgasbord." Rob said.

"I would assume." Dr. SS replied.

"Well then, we must stop it. Is there a manual override to this size/attack factor for the freeze rays?" Starfire asked.

"Um yes…but you see…it was kind of…back there…" Dr. SS said, pointing back the way they had come. "And we couldn't stop at the time because all the mutations were right at our heels. The only reason they weren't right behind us when we arrived here was because one of our techs managed to override the door controls and close one of the larger blast doors before it got us. But that won't hold long…the mutation is not only developing acidic liquids, I believe some of them have figured out how to…incorporate non-organic material into their bodies…"

"What?" Terra said.

"Some of the yucky things figured out how to stick a gun in their arm and play TX Terminator." Rob said. "Ok, how about escape?"

"That would be impossible. A breach of this caliber activates the highest level sealing procedure. Unless we send an all-clear signal to the main lab, the seals will hold. And we can only do that is the Ab deviance is re-contained."

"But we got IN!"

"That's the only way you could go. The alert also triggers a procedure that will call a special Star Labs detainment/containment team. The doors only go one way to let them in. When you came down here, the doors locked behind you."

"Ok then. How long before they get here?"

"Um…considering the sheer depth of the corruption…and the equipment needed and the time to transfer it here…four days."

Rob stared.

"Can we pound our way out?"

"Through all the metal and bedrock? Even with your talents, it would take weeks to reach the surface."

"What? You're Star Labs! Don't you have all sorts of super-tech weapons and other fancy stuff?"

"Well yes, but our facility was designed in case someone tried to use those weapons against us."

"Ok, no guns! How about something else? You have some kind of super danger signaler? Maybe some kind of teleportation device?"

"Er…well…we do have that…"

"What?"

"Well when you suggested teleportation device, I was reminded…"

"You have some kind of teleporter? GREAT! Let's grab it and get out of here!"

"No! We don't have a teleportation device!"

"But you said…"

"What we have is an experimental alternate displacement device! It doesn't teleport per say, it takes matter from one place and another and switches their locations! And the key word is EXPERIMENTAL. Even IF we could set it up so that we could switch places with things on the surface, it can only go a few dozen feet! And we've only begun testing it! We haven't performed any tests on organic matter at all! Using it could mean a horrible death!" 

"……ARGH! Ok. Can we go back for the manual override?" Rob finally asked.

"It would be folly. We don't know how much of the Ab deviance is in either hallway. It's smart. Going back via either path would most likely be suicide."

"Ok, so let me get this straight. We're locked in with no way out. We won't get help for four days. We have freeze rays that won't deploy unless Aberration grows big, and YOU ONLY PUT THE MANUAL OVERRIDE FOR THIS FEATURE IN ONE ROOM? YOU IDIOT! DIDN'T YOU SEE JURASSIC PARK!?!"

"We do have budget considerations young man." Dr. SS replied.

Gauntlet ground his teeth.

"Well child, there is some good news. We were able to grab plenty of guns and ammo before that thing forced our retreat. At least we're well armed." The captain said, walking over.

"Great. So Aberration will have plenty of things to pick its teeth with after it eats us." Rob replied. Terra was by now looking sick, and how she hadn't accidentally caused an earthquake either shows great luck or the fact that Rob's training is paying off.

"Ok Star, you're the senior member here, and you heard all what this guy said. What do you suggest?" Rob asked.

"I say you and I Rob make a break for the manual override. Terra, this situation has severely crippled your powers. I suggest you stay behind. No offense."

"None taken." Terra said.

"I will not ask you to risk the lives of your men captain, but I must ask we take one technician to operate the computer. We will go your original route, and hopefully the main mass of Aberration had followed your loop and not doubled back or left guards. If all goes right we can disable it without any more losses."

"That sounds like a plan, little miss."

"I am a princess and a warrior on my home, captain. Do not condescend to me." Starfire replied. Gauntlet arched an eyebrow. Starfire certainly was taking after Robin.

"Heh. Ok your royal…" the captain began.

"Movement sir! Coming towards us!" one of the female soldiers yelled, holding up her motion tracker.

"Dammit, not now! Ok you two, better hurry, you might not have the chance in a minute!" the captain said.

"Wait sir!" said another soldier. "I think it's a friendly!"

"What? Impossible, no one could have escaped when it got them!" the captain said.

"That's what the tracker's showing sir! Orders?" the soldier said, shoving the device in the captain's face. The captain thought for a minute.

"Ok, deploy! Caution! Friendlies to the back! Full charge, concussive blasts only, and remember, NO GRENADES!" the captain yelled.

The soldiers set up, while the Titans escorted the surviving scientists behind them and stood guard. For a moment there was silence.

And then dragging footsteps as something approached. There were various clicks and hums as weapons armed.

And then a soldier stumbled in from the shadows of the right fork of the hallway all his fellows had come from. His uniform was ripped to shreds, his face was a bloody mess, and his left hand was clutched to his side to cover a bloody wound. But he was human.

"Don't shoot…one of you…" he managed to whisper, staggering forward.

"Corporal Sachs! You escaped!" one of the soldiers said, starting to get up.

"Hold your position soldier!"

"But sir he's a…"

And the Corporal Sachs took his hand away from his side…revealing that he hadn't been holding it, he had been jamming something into it, sticking it straight into the wound. To hide it. A blood-slicked pistol that he brought up and began to fire.

One soldier yelled as he took two in the chest and then another's face exploded.  The next second, with a screamed order, all the remaining soldiers opened fire, a hail of laser bolts cutting Corporal Sachs to pieces.

And the spider-like creature on it's back, the tentacles it had jammed into Sachs' spine and the base of his skull ripping out and flailing as it died. The now finally dead corpse collapsed.

"Dammit fuck! Sachs!" The soldier who had been getting up yelled. No, he wasn't one of the two hit. Can't ALWAYS follow the clichés.

"Fuck! Mutation has developed puppet abilities! Men, stand…" The captain began.

"CAPTAIN!" one of the men screamed. "THE TRACKER!"

A second later, the dissected corpse of the man that had been manipulated by the puppet spider was pulled back into the shadows.

And the captain pulled up the tracker the man had offered him, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head even as a cold pit formed in his stomach. The hallway in front of them was now filled with movement. And the captain knew how they had missed it: the mutation had sent the puppet Sachs ahead to distract anyone from looking at the tracker while they rest of it snuck up in behind him. The beeping sounds were lost in the gunfire.

How smart had it gotten….?

"Fall back men! Fall…"

And then a flesh line shot forward, wrapping around the ankle of the solider that had been shot twice in the chest and knocked down . His body armour had protected him, but nothing would protect him from what lay ahead, as he was dragged screaming into the shadows. His screams cut off wetly as the things beyond fed.

"FALL BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then they came forth.

First the small ones, crawling on the floors, walls, and ceiling, multi-legged like spiders, their flesh a bizarre medley of colors. _Racing stripes_. Rob thought crazily.

The soldiers opened fire, blowing the creatures to bits with squealing shrieks. But more came, and then others were emerging: a four set of legs with a gaping jaw where the head should be, a creature with a bird-like bill that walked on blade like legs, a hideous caterpillar like creature that had what looked like the protrusion of a crustacean as a face, and more, and more, crawling and flying and buzzing, filling the hallway with terrible noise and an even more terrible smell.

It was a good thing Terra had gone to the bathroom recently. If she hadn't, she probably would have wet herself.

"FIRE! FIRE!" the captain ordered. But the creatures that the gunfire cut down were pounced upon and devoured by the others. And now Rob understood why there had been no blood or bodies. Aberration had…recycled them all.

"Titan!" someone was yelling. "GO! THE OVERRIDE!"

"Too late!" Another was yelling. Indeed, the soldiers had backed up and before the Titans knew what they were doing, shocked by Aberration's sudden appearance, the masses of it had quickly taken the fork, cutting off both routes. They could no longer go that way unless they dared pass through hell. And even Gauntlet knew he probably wouldn't make it alive.

"Rob! We need a Plan B! Do you have a Plan B?" Starfire was yelling.

Rob smiled weakly.

"Yeah, can we call an exterminator?"

And then the four-legged jaw creature suddenly crouched down and leapt at unbelievable speed, flying over the soldiers towards its target.

That was what the others saw.

All Gauntlet could see was the jaws opening to clamp off his head.


	18. Evilution: Natura Non Confundenda Est

Chapter 16: Natura Non Confundenda Est*

(*Writer's Note: The Title is Latin. Loosely translated? "Don't Fuck With Mother Nature")

The crooked, jagged, slimy teeth filled Rob's vision, as the Aberration offshoot closed its mouth…

Right on the yellow energy field around Rob. Rob smirked.

"Next time, pick someone without the invulnerable barrier." He said, and wrapped the force field around the creature and drove it into the wall as hard as he could, squashing it flat. The mass tumbled to the ground, spasming. Behind him, Terra retched at the smell, though she managed to avoid vomiting.

"Concentrate! CONCENTRATE!" the captain was yelling, and the soldiers responded by all aiming their fire at the closest creature and firing at it until it was dead. But no sooner did that happen then more creatures bounced on the pieces and ate them. And the many spider-like forms were FAST.

"Hold the line! Hold!" the captain was yelling.

Starfire floated up, her eyes glowing, but as she thrust out her hands Gauntlet reached out and pulled her down.

"Don't! Those things like heat, right? You could just feed it!"

"They worked last time!"

"That was then, this is now!"

"Then what do we do?"

Gauntlet opened his mouth and found he had no answer. With no Starbolts or rocks, and his Gauntlet's limited range, they really were up shit creek. 

"Ok, maybe we should provide cover for the soldiers…" Gauntlet said.

And then the masses of Aberration parted, revealing another soldier, walking forward. Half his head was gone, replaced by a brain-sucking spider posed grotesquely over the maw, and he was holding out his arms…

As he pulled the pins out of two grenades.

"OH SHIT!" Rob yelled.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The puppet soldier yelled as he charge forward. The massed soldiers tried to fall back but the attack was too sudden. The explosion happened three feet in front of them, throwing the front line into disarray. As the soldiers scrambled back, the spider creatures swarmed over one with a scream, and a hideous bug/bat flying one shot out a tentacle of flesh and grabbed a female soldier, pulling her up and crunching the top of her body off. No blood gouted down though: the creature drank it all.

"RETREAT!" the captain yelled, and the soldiers began backing up, holding their fire. Another puppet solider appeared, running forward and screaming. Rob crazily expected the poor guy to yell "For the Swarm!". This time, the lasers blasts cut it down, and it stumbled back and exploded in the masses of Aberration. Which set off a chain reaction of mutations, as the parts grew bigger and grew new limbs, jaws, stingers, organic hose things…

That sprayed at them. The soldiers dodged aside as the powerful acid ate into the floor. At least that didn't hurt anyone.

The group of survivors backed around the corner. One of the female scientists had been fiddling with the terminal Starfire had been at a little while ago, and as the group passed she pulled some kind of plug out and joined them, clutching what looked to be a combination of a walkie-talkie and mini-TV. The group backed up: the scientists carrying the bags of guns and ammo and those who weren't, then the Titans, who were protecting them from any of the Aberration offshoots that flew over or got around the soldiers (actually, it was really just Gauntlet, as he had the only working weapon), and finally the soldiers as they tried to defeat Aberration's inexhaustible mass. It was futile though. They were just trying to survive. It WAS survival itself.

Terra whimpered as they passed the elevator they had come down on, that escape route now cut off and sealed. Advancing steadily, the Aberration masses forced the humans back into the room at the other end of the hallway: apparently a workout area for the scientists. The previous trip through here was clear: virtually everything was overturned and trashed.

One of the techs, as the last of the soldiers were coming through the door, ran past them and began punching at a keyboard.

"RUN COOBLE!" The captain yelled, and the last soldier in the hallway turned and sprinted for the room as the door closed.

And then the fleshy jaw clamped over him. The only thing that made it through the door were his legs, and only because they were thrown out from the sudden stop before being dragged back. The only thing that entered the room permanently was the soldier's blood in a spray. Terra screamed.

"That won't hold for long!" the tech said. Indeed, the door was already starting to dent, as loud banging and shrieks could be heard on the other side.

"Reload and recharge men!" the captain ordered. A nearby scientist was already digging into his knapsack, tossing black somethings with metal prongs to the soldiers, who grabbed them and inserted them into their guns. The door was starting to crack as the soldiers finished re-charging (and in some cases, getting brand new guns) and took up new positions.

"They're in a bottleneck! Concentrated bursts! And keep an eye on your weapon!" the captain ordered.

And then Aberration burst forth through the door. It met a barrage of fire that slaughtered all the creatures that came through the door immediately.

"Titans!" the female tech was saying. Rob looked away from the battle at what the female tech was showing him: the walkie-TV thing. It was showing a map like the one he had seen earlier.

"I scanned the whole area! The good news is, all of the Ab deviance is in the hallway beyond! It is nowhere else in the facility!"

"That's great. HOW DOES THAT HELP US!" Robert yelled.

"Well, um, we thought you might have a plan or something…" the female tech stammered.

The walls around the doors caved in as the creatures, through sheer strength and weight, pressed their way through. The soldiers began to back up again.

Starfire flew up, throwing a weight bar like a javelin and piecing one of the flying creatures through the head. Inspired, Rob turned and began grabbing up all the weights he could with his yellow energy field, throwing and tossing them. It didn't much affect the creatures, but it knocked them back and staggered them, which allowed the soldiers to shoot them.

But there were just too many creatures, and unlike the soldiers, their numbers were virtually inexhaustible, as the surviving creatures just ate the remains of the dead and incorporated the mass into their own bodies (while at the same time, staying small enough to avoid setting off the freeze rays). One of the soldiers tripped and fell down, and was immediately swarmed by the spider creatures. A flying one that rather looked like a pterodactyl swooped in, managing to dodge the fire and slice off another soldier's head. But as it flew back up Starfire rammed into it with her shoulder and shoved it into the wall with as much force as she could muster, crushing it in a spray of blood.

Terra looked around frantically. There had to be something she could do! She was a Titan! She wasn't a helpless girl! But there were…no rocks…

And then her eyes lit on the rock climbing wall. She blinked. It was one of those setups that let people mimic mountain climbing in somewhat safer conditions…

And it had rocks! Lots of them! Terra had an idea. She'd pulled all the rocks out and send them out in a rapid zig-zagging pattern. With her power, it would be like sticking the Aberration mutations in the middle of a food processor. She could do that all over the front of the room and down the hallway, carving all the mutations into so many chunks they wouldn't be able to rebuild themselves. She'd prove she was a Titan! She'd save the day!

And, filled with confidence and an utter refusal to screw up, Terra reached out and summoned her power.

And nothing happened.

Sweat beaded Terra's brow. No! She was the master of the earth and all in it! She had to do this! She reached out with triple the effort.

Nothing.

And then, as horror shot through her being, she recalled something Robert had said just a short hour ago…

_Amazing what they can do with plastics these days, eh?_

The wall wasn't rock. She couldn't manipulate it.

And then a shriek cut into her ears, and she looked as what looked like a cross between a grasshopper and a scorpion leapt at her, jaws clacking, to eat her.

She had failed. She was a failure. And she was also dead…

And then a blast of lasers cut the creature apart in mid-air, leaving Terra soaked with greenish-brown goo but still alive. A soldier ran in front of her.

"You ok miss?" he asked. He was a tough-looking lanky man, but in his eyes blazed pure battle ability.

Everything she wasn't.

"You…saved me…" she said. "I…IYEEEEE LOOK OUT!"

The soldier turned as the fat creature with what looked like a hose on its back lumbered up. The soldier yelled and opened fire, ripping the creature apart.

But not before it had gotten off a stream of liquid via the thing on it's back. It splattered on the soldier.

"UH!" he yelled.

"No!" Terra cried.

"CHUHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the soldier screamed, falling backwards as the acid ate his face and chest away.

"Noooooo!" Terra cried again, frozen to the spot, not knowing whether to aid him or run, or fight or flee, or just roll over and die like the useless baggage she was…

"Come on, we have to fall back!" Gauntlet was suddenly saying, running past Terra and grabbing her shoulder to pull her with him. She stayed where she was.

"No…" she whimpered. Gauntlet looked at her and then at the man who had saved her at the cost of his own life.

"He's gone! Let's go!" he yelled, trying to pull her again.

"No…no he's…" Terra whined.

Yellow energy suddenly wrapped around Terra, pulling her up and away from the body, putting her in front of Rob.

"FORGET HIM, HE'S GONE! And he died like a warrior! That's the way he would have wanted it!" Rob yelled, as he and the last of the soldiers ran through the other door. "We have to get…" Rob said as he put Terra down and turned. The female tech with the portable map was already working to key the door closed, as it slid out…

Before a pair of bony claws slid into the gap and stopped it, as another hideous mutation stuck its head through the gap.

"Get the damn door!" the captain ordered. But the monster let loose with a stream of acid that forced all the soldiers to dive for cover. The door began opening again, even as all the other monsters behind the blocking one loomed….

And then a yellow energy hand reached out, grabbing the monster's head, as Gauntlet walked up.

"You wanna eat something?" Gauntlet snarled as he rocked back his metal-encrusted arm. "EAT THIS!"

And he slammed his fist straight through the creature's head, sending it jerking backwards. A second later the door closed on it's body with a sickening crunch and a stream of yellow liquid.

"Get back! We'll make our final stand back there!" the captain was yelling. The humans retreated down the long high ceilinged hallway. Rob's eyes settled on a large heavily armored door that was in the middle of the hallway.

"What's in there?" he asked Dr. SS, who was still alive and kicking.

"The other dangerous mutations! But don't worry, that has the thickest shielding of any part of the facility and it's locked down tight! It would take Aberration a week to cut through it!"

"Great. Does this door we're going through have shielding as thick as that?" Rob asked, as the humans went into a room that was once used for experiments. Most of it had been trashed from Aberration's first trip through, and the wrecking continue as all the soldiers threw the tables and other things into a corner to make room. They were lucky they didn't accidentally mix up an explosive or poison gas.

"Er…no."

"I figured." Rob said, as the female tech went to work on the panel. But after a few seconds she shrieked as sparks suddenly shot from the panel.

"What's happening missy?" the captain said.

"There's been a malfunction! I may not be able to close the door!"

At the far end of the hallway, the previous door gave way and the masses of Aberration spilled forth.

"FIGURE OUT A WAY!" the captain screamed. The better shooters of the remaining soldiers began firing long range at the creatures, but it didn't slow their advance. The female tech gestured Rob over and motioned for him to rip open the panel. Rob did so via the Gauntlet, and the female tech began frantically stripping wires to try and force a solution.

The fast spider creatures were already in the room, the soldiers picking them off as they came in, but they only had seconds, as the large hallway was allowing Aberration to come at them _en masse_…

And then with a cry of triumph, the female touched two wires, and with a spark, the twin doors slid closed in the monsters' faces.

"Star! Seal it!" Rob yelled. Starfire flew to the door and placed her hand on in, using a highly concentrated and manipulated heat charge derived from her abilities to melt and fuse the locks together.

"This should hold for a bit." Starfire said, flying back to Rob.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Rob said, as he turned to the female tech as she pulled out her personal map.

"Gauntlet, was it?" she said. "I know this probably isn't what you wanted to hear, but we've run out of rooms! We're down to just this one and the main experimental chamber! Once we're in there, we'll be cut off from any escape routes whatsoever! So if you have some special power you've been saving for emergencies, this would be a very good time to pull it out!"

"Errrrr…lemme check my other pants." Gauntlet said, flying over to Starfire, who was trying to comfort a distraught Terra. He could already hear the racket as Aberration attacked the door, trying to get to them.

"It is ok Terra! We are still alive and kicking! We can fight! This is no time to panic!" Starfire said.

"What are you talking about, this is the perfect time to panic!" Gauntlet blurted out. Terra looked ill. "Er, I meant, I think we're finally tiring it out!"

"We've run out of wiggle room, one way or the other." The captain said as he walked up. "We're going to make a last stand. You with me Titans?"

"To the last man, captain." Starfire said.

"Heh. You must have been a good soldier back on your home. Lemme give you an equalizer against Bloated, Ugly, and Many." The captain said, walking back to his men.

************************

And of course, this is where we came in.

Only small holes had been made, but they were all the spider scouts needed as they crawled in.

Soldiers opened fire on them, blowing them to pieces. But more came, eating the remains, growing larger. Some even had heat lasers attached to their backs, the cutting tools incorporated into and commanded by their bodies.

"I knew all those hours of _Time Crisis_ would come in handy." Terra said, as she splattered one of the larger forms apart. But more came, and more holes were forming even as the previous ones grew larger.

A flying wasp-like creature managed to squeeze through, tumble down, roll, unfurling it's wings, and fly up as it flew at a soldier, ramming its giant stinger through the chest of a soldier. He screamed as the wasp thing flew on, pulling the soldier along. The body flew into the Titans, knocking Gauntlet over and causing him to lose his gun. With a growl, he reached out as he formed his energy field into a fly swatter esque shape and squashed the wasp thing into the ground. It was fitting. Aberration appeared to be favoring insect-like forms.

"Fuck…" Gauntlet cursed. "The great powers of a magical artifact…the aid of two powerful and skilled comrades…backed up by a group of crack and brave troops…"

Gauntlet picked up the gun as his shield reformed over him, even as a targeting sight formed from it popped up over the gun.

"And I'd trade it all in for a goddamn can of Raid!" Gauntlet finished as he turned and resumed firing on the monsters.

The soldiers were backing up again as the holes grew bigger, as more of Aberration made its way through. Another flying creature had a wing sheered off in a spray and fell with a shriek. Terra matched its shriek with her own as the creature zoomed towards them. The Titans scattered as it crash-landed where they had been. Gauntlet turned and gave it a burst of fire to make sure it stayed down.

Now the soldiers were on the move, too many parts of Aberration having pushed their way in for them to stay in one place. Two were trying to guard the scientists against the advance of a grotesquely fat walking orb of pinkish-black flesh that walked on four stubby legs. Suddenly it exploded, spraying small rat like creatures everywhere that swarmed the group. Gauntlet swooped in, smashing the creatures flat with the Gauntlet field, and then he indicated one of the scientists holding the spare guns to open his sack. He did, and Gauntlet pulled out three other ones with the force field, set them up, and opened fire on anything he could see with all four.

Starfire was in an air duel with another monster, a fly-like form with scorpion-esque claws. It seized the barrel of her gun with one claw and sheered it off, but Starfire ducked under its following attack, zipped under the creature, and flew up suddenly, ramming the thing into the ceiling. It fell, she with it, and she landed on it, bringing the butt of her gun down on where she thought the head was, ramming and ramming, her innocence and wonder at Earth put aside, replaced by the warrior spirit of Koriand'r, princess of Tamaran.

The captain was fighting all alone, but he didn't need help as he did his best Punisher impression with twin laser rifles. But what looked like a Venus flytrap with tentacles opened its maw and belched corrosive liquid. The captain ran back, but the stream caught his guns, melting the fronts.

"SHIT!" he cursed, throwing them down. He withdrew twin automatic pistols from his belt and resumed his fire almost immediately, blowing apart the monster that had robbed him of his weapons.

And in the middle of it all stood Terra. Her brief surge of confidence had vanished as everyone ran and screamed and fired and died around her, and she couldn't do anything, and there was just so much noise and confusion and the heat and the smell and…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Terra screamed.

Gauntlet suddenly felt the earth began to shake.

"TERRA NO!" he screamed.

Too late.

The metal floor suddenly buckled as huge daggers of rock stabbed through it, the ceiling cracking open as boulders fell through, the whole room warping as Terra's emotions ran wild and did the same with the ground.

And unfortunately, this also damaged the door even more, twisting it halfway off its hinges.

The racket suddenly stopped, as Terra regained control of herself.

And then the door fell backwards, pulled in one mighty tug by the Aberration forces, and they surged in.

"RETREAT!" the captain yelled, as the soldiers fell back. But Aberration was suddenly everywhere: cutting, biting, clawing, spraying, swarming. Three more soldiers fell under the hordes, and we will not go into their deaths: they were not nice.

"Holy shit!" Rob said as a new mutation walked in. This one was humanoid, the size of a body builder, hunched over with a long neck…and several laser rifles sticking out of its back like a porcupine. With a roar, the rifles began firing. Two soldiers were caught in the spray were cut down and immediately swarmed by Aberration, and a scientist behind Rob was shot in the chest before he managed to extend his shield over all of them to protect them. With a yell, he opened fire on the one monster firing squad, blowing it apart with his four guns, but the weapons exploded as he blasted them, and the creature mutated into three brand new ones from the heat as it fell apart. Rob gestured for the scientists to move and they did.

"Fall back to the final defense! Fall-ACK!" the captain yelled as a monster leapt up, ran along the ceiling, and pounced at the captain. The captain dodged its initial claw attack and fell at it landed on him. He snapped his head to the side to avoid getting pierced by the stinger tail on its back, and then with a yell he rolled and forced it off of him. It hit the wall, and the captain actually planted his boot on the creature's head as he stood up and began firing his guns into it at point-blank range, splattering the cranium all over his shoe.

"Well done soldier!" Starfire said as she swooped in and pulled him away before several new monsters attacked him. By now all the humans were at the hallway leading to the final door. But there were SO many monsters, all over the place, heading towards them, swarming, shrieking…

And then a giant boulder landed on the groups closest to the humans, squashing them flat.

"HHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! FUCK YOU!" Terra screamed as she floated down on a rock. Gone was Confident Terra, and also gone was Shell-Shocked and Wrecking Everyone's Plans Terra. She was sick and tired of being scared and causing other people to die at the hands of this freak. Now she was Woman Terra, and Aberration was going to hear her roar.

"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!" Terra screamed as she hurled boulders onto other monsters. "FUCK YOU ALL! HAVE SOME OF THIS! YOU HAVE SOME TOO! OH, YOU WANT SOME TOO? FUCK YOU!" Terra screamed as she hurled boulders, rock daggers, pebbles, mounds of suffocating and crushing earth, and everything else she could at the legions.

But there were just…so…many…

Twin flyers suddenly appeared, zapping at her. Terra saw them at the last second, and she shrieked.

Then the Gauntlet field wrapped around her and pulled her away, yanking her back as Gauntlet ran down the hallway and into the final door just before it closed. A second later, Starfire sealed it behind them.

That was it. The flight option was exhausted, as Aberration collected itself and continued its march to destroy these annoying humans so it could finally escape and feed and grow.

************************

"Whoa! Terra, that was NICE." Gauntlet said. However, it looked like Woman Terra had only been there for a brief visit, and she quickly vanished, leaving Shell-Shocked Terra behind.

"Oh god…I just couldn't control it any more…" she said.

"That doesn't matter! You probably saved all our asses when it counted. Really Terra. Relax."

"Yes, good work soldier." The captain said. Starfire looked at him.

"Captain, situation?"

"Only five of my troops have survived." The captain said, looking at the four men and one woman that were left. "We have enough guns to outfit the scientists, but even excluding a repeat of your blonde earthmover's little slip, I don't see how we can prevent this room from being a repeat of the last room. And this time we don't have anywhere else to run." The captain said.

Rob looked around the room. It was huge, as it should be: it was the main experimenting room, the one where Aberration had escaped.

Experiments…

"Hey! You!" Rob said, heading over to Dr. SS. "Does this room have any weapons at all?"

"Er, some…but they're all cutting or heat based. Heat based is out of the question, and even if we cut the Ab deviance apart, you see what happens. The other parts just reincorporate it. We don't have anything that would really be effective, like a matter scrambler or a displacement dimensional…"

"Wait, wait…" Rob said. A small part of him wished Noel was here. He wondered if Noel would make so many smart-ass comments about Rob is he saw what Rob had done in the past hour. "Remember our conversation earlier? That not a teleporter switchy device…is it in this room?"

"Um…I believe so…"

"Is it working?"

"I believe so…"

"Good! Fire it up! I have an idea! If what I remember is correct." Rob said. He went over. "Star! You generate heat right?"

"Excuse me?"

"When you charge up a Starbolt. You generate heat, right?"

"Yes, some…more depending on how much I charge…"

"Perfect. Captain, do you still have your grenades?"

"What? Kid, the grenades are worthless. They just make Aberration grow bigger."

"EXACTLY!" Rob said. The scientists had made their way to some rubble and pulled it aside, as they began fiddling with a chamber that looked to be straight out of _The_ _Fly_. Maybe that was where the inspiration came from.

"Kid, I see what you might be thinking, but it won't work. The pieces will stay small to avoid the…"

"Yes, in theory. Aberration appears to have evolved a brain. But even smart creatures are subjected to whims and needs. If a human is very hungry or thirsty for example, it will unconsciously do stupid things if it provides what it seeks. I think we can use that against Aberration!"

"How?"

"Provided that device works…" Rob said, and was interrupted by a sudden fierce pounding on the door. The masses were starting to get through. "I say you rig all your grenades into one big bomb. Then Starfire takes whatever is needed to switch one piece of matter with another and floats over to the center of the room. Then she starts charging up, I mean really charging. Aberration likes heat, right? Well, if my plan works, she'll generate so much heat that all the pieces will be drawn to her! We wait until they're all there, and then we used the device to switch Starfire with the grenade bomb! It explodes, the heat makes the pieces mutate, and HOPEFULLY the close quarters will cause all of them to FUSE, forming a mass large enough to activate the freeze cannons!"

"…….You know that's just crazy and unnecessarily complicated and risky to work. I'll make the bomb!" the captain said, and ran over to his troops.

"What do I do?" Terra said.

"Terra, if this doesn't work, or the device screws up…I want you to bring the whole facility down on our heads. Even if it means our deaths. Better we all die, who understand why we fight, then all the innocents who will die if Aberration breaks out."

Terra's face went through a variety of horrified expressions, and then her eyes went as hard as rock and she nodded.

"Robert, it is a good plan, but even if I can generate that much heat…how will I keep all the creatures away from me? I will be eaten long before all the pieces…"

"That's where I come in." Gauntlet said. "I'm going to hold the device that allows us to switch and stand right up against you so my shield covers both of us. It will let the heat out, but hopefully it won't let the creatures IN."

"But Rob, at such close quarters the heat will be terrible! I can handle it, but you…I could cook you alive!"

"That's a risk I'll have to take. We'll have to be touching for the device to teleport us both, and we can't put it on you, otherwise the heat might damage it. Besides, it's time like these where we prove why we get paid the big bucks!" Rob said grinning.

"But Rob, we don't get paid at all!" Terra said.

"THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME." Rob said through clenched teeth.

************************

It was set.

The humans were all grouped near the matter displacement device. Near it was a bandolier of grenades all rigged so that all the pins could be pulled at once. Wrapped around one was a metal band loaded with chips. The same metal band was wrapped around the high part of Robert's metal covered arm, which was resting on Starfire's shoulder. Hopefully the heat wouldn't make it that far.

Starfire was floating in the middle of the room, Rob against her back, a few strands of the energy field keeping him balanced near Starfire without putting excess weight on her, the same tricky technique he had used to sit on Terra's back with hurting her seemingly an eternity ago.

"Ready!" Terra said.

"Go Kory." Rob said.

"Rob…"

"DO IT!"

Starfire's eyes glowed bright green as energy exploded on her hands.

"The door will be breached in fifteen seconds!" the female tech yelled.

At first the heat was like a warm summer breeze. Within five seconds it was like a sauna. Sweat broke on Robert's face.

"In five! Four! Three…" the female tech was yelling, but Robert could no longer hear her. The heat had become like an open blast furnace, and he could feel the metal on his palm begin to heat up as well.

"BREACH!"

And the spider creatures, armed with their door-destroying acids, broke through. Without anyone firing on them (lest they distract them from the wanted target), they made a beeline for the humans.

"Come on, come on…come on…" Rob said, as sweat poured down his face.

The soldiers raised their guns, but they did not fire. But the spiders were getting closer, ignoring Starfire, even though she was now generating so much heat that the others felt it. For Kory, it was much like a state of constipation spread over her whole body. But she knew she had to keep the energy within herself, not only for the trap to work, but if she let it go she'd catch Rob inside his own barrier and vaporize him. She was glad she hadn't used any Starbolts on Aberration: she never would have been able to generate this level of energy if she had.

The spiders bore down on the humans, even as the holes widened, the lack of a counterattack greatly speeding up the door's destruction, as more and more creatures poured through.

The closest spider posed itself to leap…

And then stopped. It twitched for a bit.

And then it turned and made a beeline for Kory and Rob.

Maybe it was due to the hive mind, it maybe it was despite it, or maybe it was just fate's need for dramatics, but it was like a game of follow the leader, as the other spiders turned and headed for the two Titans as well.

Rob wished it could be faster. He felt like he was standing in the middle of a geyser.

The first spider leapt up and smacked against the shield. Rob grimaced at its disgusting underbelly as it crawled on the shield, trying to get to the heat. It's brothers joined it, and then a flying creature, and then another, and then they all seemed to be piling on each other at once, trying to get to the head. Rob's agony became doubled, as he not only had to deal with the intense heat but the increasing pressure.

"Ok, about 60% of the creatures are in the room! 72%!" the female tech yelled as she looked at her personal map, as the red dots she had used to mark Aberration poured in and gathered at one spot.

Rob and Kory didn't hear any of it. They were each lost in their own world of concentration. Rob's gloved hand was now glowing red-hot.

"87%! 89%! 94%! 96%!" the female tech yelled. "99…100 PERCENT! THEY'RE ALL THERE!"

And they looked it. Gauntlet and Starfire had long vanished under a floating rough sphere shape of writhing, seething flesh, all the colours of the rainbow and all the shapes of the nightmares of H.R Giger.

The captain pulled out all the pins of the grenades, as Dr. SS pressed some buttons.

"Remember, this might not…"

"SHUT UP!" Terra screamed. Dr. SS looked perturbed, but he finished his commands.

"Toss it!"

The captain threw the grenade bomb in.

For a second, everything was still.

And then a feeling passed over all the humans, a queasy sensation as the laws of physics altered in their presence.

And then the bomb vanished.

Rob almost believed he could feel his face beginning to melt…

And then he and Starfire vanished.

For a moment, they were everywhere and nowhere.

And then they were in the transport tube, crammed in like a sardine, as all the pieces of Aberration made strange, almost barking noises as their heat source disappeared.

The orb of pieces hung in the air.

And then a massive explosion blasted through the surface as all the pieces howled. Streams of fire blew through the cracks in the imperfect sphere, blowing off small chunks that landed nearby, even as the mass of flesh fell to the ground.

Strangely, all the humans' eyes were on the small pieces of flesh that had been flung off of the main grouping, watching, waiting to see if they sprouted legs from the heat and the end of them came…

It didn't. Instead the flesh pieces quivered and dissolved into ash.

"Look!" one of the scientists said.

There was no longer any separation between all the creatures. It had become a seething puddle of flesh the size of a small building (told you the room was large). A roar so great it shook the humans to the bone blasted through the room, as the flesh reformed, stretching out into legs, arms, tentacles, and heads, five in all, all on long necks, as Aberration returned in all its glory, looking at the humans like they were delicious appetizers.

And then Rob tumbled out of the small, cramped chamber, shoved by Starfire, who thrust out her arms.

"Candygram for Mr. Mongo!"

And she let loose with every bit of energy she had stored away during her furnace act, the mother of all Starbolts that blasted from her hands, the size of a mach truck. It slammed into Aberration, blowing even his massive form across the whole room with a gigantic crash and a roar of pain and rage.

"Great. Make the giant hungry monster mad at us." Rob said.

"It was either that or shoot it straight up your rectum, Gauntlet." Starfire said.

"Um…where are the…?" Terra began.

"Warning. Warning. Breach detected. Corruption has escaped. Deploying defense mechanisms." A computer voice suddenly said as wall slid open and large blue-painted cannons slid out, aiming at Aberration.

Aberration roared as it pulled its giant mass up. It sounded almost human. Almost like Aberration was yelling "No, no, NOOOO!"

The cannons fired.

Aberration roared as the blue beams struck him, rearing back, and then it was totally covered in ice, a mutantsicle.

All the humans let out the breath they were holding.

Then the captain pulled out one of his guns, and from somewhere on his person, produced three more that he handed to the Titans.

"You know the line?" he said.

"I do now." Starfire replied, and all four aimed.

_"HASTA LA VISA, BABY."_

The four guns boomed, and Aberration once again shattered into a million pieces.

"Ok, get this room's systems back on line! Laura, run back to the room with the manual override and activate it so we can keep the cannons out! Everyone move! Get this room's temperature down below freezing! Break out the Haz-mat suits! We don't want it breaking out again!" Dr. SS yelled, while actually shooing the Titans and the soldiers out of the room as the surviving scientists went on autopilot to keep Aberration in its prison.

"Breach neutralized. Security systems standing down. Have a nice day." The computer said.

"Can we go home now?" Starfire asked.

************************

Once the elevator door opened, Rob stepped out, pulled open the nearest fridge door, yanked out ten bottles of water, tore the tops off of them with the Gauntlet, and then poured them all on himself while holding his mouth open. Starfire was doing the rough equivalent with a Five-Alive and a Fruitopia.

"We're free! We're free!" Rob yelled as he ran out of the store. "Hello sky! Hello robbed and vandalized convenience store! Hello other buildings! Hello person looking at me and freaking out! Hello street! Grass! Lovely soft non-metal grass!" Rob said, running over and throwing himself down, rapidly kissing the ground. He did this a few times before he got a mouth full of clippings and sat up, spitting. "Ok, maybe that wasn't such a good idea."

Quietly, Terra stepped out of the store. Starfire was still drinking liquids. Good. No one would notice her, as she turned and…

"Going somewhere?" Gauntlet asked, suddenly appearing in front of him.

"Yes. I'm leaving."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not a Titan. I'm a weak girl who nearly got you all killed. Men died to save me and I couldn't even avenge their deaths. I'm no hero, and I don't belong here." Terra said, as she tried to step past Rob.

Yellow energy seized her shoulders.

"You're not going anywhere."

"Yes I am! You can't stop me! Let me go! I won't! I WON'T!" Terra said, rearing back and slapping Rob as hard as she could. It hurt, but he didn't budge.

"Terra, you did all you could, and considering you only had one freak out, that just shows you can really control yourself if you put your mind to it. You belong with us."

"No I don't! All I do is get in the way! I'm not good at anything!"

"Yet you helped out even without your abilities. I'd be helpless if I was somehow separated from this." Rob said, indicating his Gauntlet, now back in ring form. "Terra, no one saves the world overnight. We all make mistakes. I robbed a bank when I should have been robbing BANKS, Starfire said bad words to important people, Savior jammed that stick up his ass…no wait, I think he meant to do that…"

Terra giggled.

"But beside THAT, you are NOT leaving. And if you try, I'll just tie you up until you change your mind."

"Try it. I'll show the real meaning of rock your world." Terra said, holding up her hand as rocks floated up nearby.

"Time to go guys." Starfire said. Two of the soldiers were tidying up the wrecked convenience store, the normality of the act very refreshing after the horror of what they had just witnessed. The captain stepped from the store, looking at the sky and taking a deep breath of fresh air.

"Titans." He said, and then snapped them a salute. They saluted back.

"You know Captain, we never even got your name." Rob said.

"Captain Phillip B. Murphy at your service! Let's hope I don't see you around again soldiers." The finally named Phillip replied, and he turned and went back into the store.

"Let's hope they get a bigger budget." Rob replied, and then flew back to the Tower with the others.

************************

"And you found them like that?" Rob whispered.

"Yeah." Victor replied.

On the couch were Robin and Raven, passed out in each other's arms. I think you guys know why.

"Yes! The relationships have finally broken up! There is hope for me yet!" Rob whisper-cheered. A second later a hand slapped the back of his head. "Ow!"

"They have fallen asleep from exhaustion. It means nothing. Do not be, what is that phrase, an excrement agitatator Rob." Starfire said.

"A what?" Rob said.

"I think she meant shit disturber." Victor whispered.

"Oh."

So, without waking them, the two went into the kitchen. Starfire was already there, along with Beast Boy, Terra, and Cyborg's new girlfriend Latrisha, an attractive black teenage girl with shoulder length hair tied into a braided ponytail and a red dress with a mini-skirt that wasn't quite classy but didn't cross the line to being slutty.

"Wasn't it supposed to be a double date?" Rob asked.

"Her friend never showed. Rotten…" Victor said.

"Excuse me Cyborg? Did you just call my friend rotten?" Latrisha said. Before Cyborg could reply, she got up and walked off in a huff.

"What? No no Tish! I meant that the situation for BB was rotten because she didn't show! Oh come on, I didn't mean anything, come on Tish!" Victor said in that combined tone of annoyance and repentance that only men ever use as he followed Latrisha out out of the room.

"They'll be at that for a while. Latrisha can be a firecracker." Gar said, drinking some orange juice. "So, what happened exactly Rob? You looked pretty tired when we got home."

"Your friend Aberration broke out. We had to cage it again. Which we managed to do without your help, thank you very much!" Rob said, annoyed there had been no backup.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Why didn't you answer the distress signal?"

"There was a distress signal?"

"Yes! What, did you have your communicators turned off the whole time?"

"A few times, but not all the time. If you'd sent a signal we would have gotten it!"

"What? What gives?" Rob said.

"There wasn't any signal when we came in either." Came a sudden new voice. Robin walked in, looking a bit bleary eyed. "I think there may have been a mechanical failure. A badly timed bit of fate. No one's fault. I'll check it out tomorrow." He added as he got his own drink and sat down. Raven came in, also looking tired.

"Dude, what happened to you?" Beast Boy asked.

"Crazy murderous girl with a high-tech helmet. You?" Robin asked Starfire.

"Aberration broke out." Starfire replied.

"Man, and I thought trying to avoid being the third wheel on Cy's date tonight was tough." Beast Boy said. As if on cue, Cyborg walked back in.

"I'm gonna drive Tish come, try and calm her down a bit. She's a good girl, but, well…you know…" Cyborg said, walking out again.

"Man, what a day…" Terra said, getting some ice cream. "Let's hope for some peace and quiet after this."

************************

As the road that lies under the water rises up, allowing the island to connect to the mainland for vehicles, the T-Car drives out. In the front seat are Victor and his date, and they appear to have smoothed things over as they're talking. It's clear something lies here: there are sparks that may ignite to flame.

But, far away, a pair of malevolent, angry eyes watches the driving car through a set of binoculars. He lowers them.

"Soon." The voice says.

Terra had wished for some peace and quiet.

The Titans, instead, would soon find themselves in one of the worst situations of their young lives.

_The upcoming arc may be the controversial I've ever written. It may not even be appropriate for a fanfic. But I feel that it needs to be written._

_In fact, after consulting with Fanfiction.Net, they have said that this arc cannot even be written within the confines of my PG-13 story. Instead, I have published it as a separate work. This work is called "White and Black" and since it is rated R, you may have to fiddle with the fic viewing screen to see it (normally it will appear in a way so that only fics rated from G to PG-13 are shown, so you may have to reset it to see the story. Got it? Good.) By the time you read this, I will have put the first part up (and later readers will probably find the whole thing up, but as of now just Part 1)._

_I wish I could say, in this story I will pen next, that I was exaggerating for the sake of drama. But I am not, for A) This kind of story is not one that should be dramatized, or even really can be, because B) What happens is all based on actual events that all happened, in one form or another, by real life people and groups._

_Psychopaths. Mutants. Megalomaniacs. Monsters. Gods. The Titans have bested them all. But what will be coming next is something you can't pound into submission and whose plans cannot really be foiled at the last minute._

_And before it is over, the Titans will never be the same._


	19. I'll Be Your HERO: Book By It's Cover

Chapter 21: Book By Its Cover

Writer's Note: Between the events of Evilution and this arc, the events of my separate story, White and Black, happened. White and Black was originally going to be an arc in this story (hence why the chapters have skipped from 16 to 21), but I had to put it up as a separate fic because certain content of the fic gave it an R rating, which wouldn't be allowed in the middle of a PG-13 fic. So if you have still somehow missed it, I suggest you go read it first to understand certain story events here. The story, as mentioned, due to content, is rated R, so you may have to reset your browser to find it (check the buttons at the top of the fic listings, it probably says "Show stories from ratings G to PG-13. Reset it so it shows R rated fics. And if you haven't read it, I'll warn you: it ain't a nice read). Anyway, time to move on to something lighter.

* * *

Jump City, as cities tended to do, had recovered from the events that had recently shook its streets and residents. Things were back to normal.

Except for the white, pink, and black clad teenager jumping several hundred feet through the air and coming down on the front of a car.

Then again, in this world, that IS normal.

The car crumbled under the sudden violent impact, flipping over as the teen leapt up, flying through the air as effortlessly as any meta who possessed flight powers. The car did a complete 180 flip, the air bag exploding out to protect its lone passenger as the seat belt crushed the air from his chest, even as a sudden mound of soft dirt erupted from the ground in front of it and stopped the car. Fortunately, there were hardly any cars behind this one, and hence there was no sudden twenty-car pileup as all the vehicles swerved to avoid the wreck. And just in case, Terra was there, ready with more earth.

The multi-colored teen had his colors arranged in a strange full-body costume. On the side of his head were twin black rectangles that pointed straight up like antennas. Twin guns were holstered to his side, and his boots were large and padded, which helped with his landing on a nearby overhead bridge.

Meet Jump City's newest villain: Acid Jackrabbit.

"You careless fool!" Starfire yelled, swooping in. "You could have killed him!"

"Did I?" Acid Jackrabbit said, as he drew two fingers across his forehead in an arrogant gesture. "Maybe this will be a good reminder on why one should always buckle up!"

Starfire's eyes glowed green as she fired a barrage of Starbolts, but Acid Jackrabbit leapt forward at insane speed, thrusting out a foot and ramming it into Starfire's chest. The impact was so great that Starfire flew backwards like she had been hit with a wrecking ball, as Acid Jackrabbit bounced off, landed on a streetlight, and bounded several hundred feet through the air from there towards the roof of a nearby building.

Where every single item that wasn't nailed down suddenly became encased in black energy and was hurled at him.

Acid Jackrabbit leapt straight up, flipping over and drawing his strange looking guns. They looked more like water pistols then actual firearms, but his aim was true, as he fired at Raven, who had materialized near where he had landed. She dodged aside, but the streams caught her cape, and immediately began to dissolve it. Raven yelped and pulled her cloak off before she got melted as well.

Well, his name WAS Acid Jackrabbit. It seemed fitting he had weapons that involved some kind of corrosive substance.

"Do you know how hard it is to order those?" Raven cursed as she levitated more junk and threw it at Acid Jackrabbit. But Acid Jackrabbit just leapt over it and came down hard on the ground next to Raven, the shock wave of his impact throwing her off her feet. Even as she landed on her rear, Acid sprang forward, leaping across several buildings…

And right into a flying green pterodactyl. Acid Jackrabbit did his best to stop, but stopping while going through the air at high speed when you don't have flight abilities is easier said then done. Not to worry, as a yellow energy fist immediately swatted him from his mid-air perch, sending him flying straight down and rendering the point moot. He flipped and landed, the impact effortlessly being absorbed. A second later, Beast Boy dropped Gauntlet down to the roof and transformed back to his normal form next to him.

"Hey, Acid Jackrabbit!" Gauntlet said. "What a party! But where's your wife Heroin Hare? And your baby, Coke Bunny?"

Acid Jackrabbit didn't get mad. Instead he just made a short disrespectful chuckle, a brief "Huh"-like sound.

"Please, leave the banter to Spiderman." Acid Jackrabbit said as he pulled out one of his acerbic-liquid guns and fired. Gauntlet formed a shield in front of him and the liquid sloughed off, hitting the roof and sizzling as it ate into it.

"Yikes, that's a spicy meat-aball!" Gauntlet said.

"Still lame." Acid Jackrabbit replied.

"How about THIS!" Beast Boy said as he ran forward, transforming into a tiger, leaping and pouncing on Acid Jackrabbit, driving him to the ground and knocking his pistol away.

"Got you!" Beast Boy said.

"Please, these legs of mine can do more then jump!" Acid Jackrabbit said, as he twisted his legs up and under Beast Boy and then shoved up with them, hurling Beast Boy up into the air. Acid Jackrabbit pulled out his other gun.

"NO!" Gauntlet yelled, having seen what that acid could do. He leapt forward, the yellow energy of the Gauntlet forming into an arm above him, ending with a fist that he tried to bring down on Acid Jackrabbit. But Acid Jackrabbit rolled away at the last second, and as Beast Boy came back down he fired, soaking Beast Boy's head and torso.

"AHHHHHHH!" Beast Boy said as he became human again.

"BB! Oh no!" Gauntlet said. What could he do? He needed water! But there were no water towers nearby, and they were on a roof so there were no fire hydrants, and Rob couldn't make it rain, and oh no…

"Ah! Oh man! Help! It itches!" Beast Boy said, scratching furiously at his face and chest. Gauntlet's panic morphed into confusion.

There was no sizzling. No smoke. And Beast Boy wasn't doing his best impression of a victim from _Aliens._ He was just furiously scratching at himself, like he'd been sprayed with itching powder rather then a potent caustic chemical. Gauntlet looked in confusion at Acid Jackrabbit.

"What? You were expecting a horrible death? Please! I'm not a murderer! I'm a supervillian! Those things don't go hand in hand all the time you know!" Acid Jackrabbit said.

"But that stuff ate through stone!"

"Stone, metal, cloth, yeah, it doesn't much like non-organic material. But the chemical and flesh…well, I don't think your friend is having fun, but he'll live."

"WHAT! You…you…terrible person!" Rob blurted, unable to come up with anything.

"Yep, your banter still sucks." Acid Jackrabbit said, as he aimed at Gauntlet again.

"Really? How about my pitching?" Gauntlet replied.

"Wha?" Acid Jackrabbit said.

Gauntlet pointed behind him.

Acid Jackrabbit turned. There floated Terra on a rock, with a long thick slab of stone floating next to her.

And just as Acid Jackrabbit registered that Gauntlet had wanted him to turn away, he felt the yellow energy wrap around him from behind.

"BATTER UP!" Gauntlet yelled as he hurled the would be supervillian forward, where Terra hit him in a style that would do Babe Ruth proud, sending him flying off into the distance with an extended wail, more of anger that this had worked then of pain.

"Gar!" Terra said, landing on the roof and making her way to the still furiously scratching green teen. With a few seconds, Raven, looking very strange without her cloak, and Starfire, carrying Robin, had arrived on the roof. Cyborg was not with them: he was on a leave of absence to try and deal with the events involving the ASP and the death of his girlfriend. Noel was still with Katherine and Naomi, though in his most recent phone call he said they were getting close to finding their father.

"Gar! Are you ok?" Terra asked, kneeling next to her friend (more then that?).

"No!" Beast Boy snapped, as he furiously scratched at himself.

"I'll give him some medicine. Star, Raven, Terra, scour the area! We can't let Acid Jackrabbit get away!" Robin said, as he went hunting through his belt.

* * *

About fifteen or so building rooftops away, Acid Jackrabbit, with a groan, pulled himself up.

"Dammit, I hate it when they find the flaw in the powers…" Acid Jackrabbit moaned as he got to his feet. He could do great things with his legs, but if they didn't have anything to touch, he was pretty much screwed. And thin air didn't provide the best springboard.

Too bad. He'd liked this form, as he reached into his boot. Quickly, he pulled out a golden circle, and pressed something, or four somethings, on it four times.

There was a bright golden flash, and when it faded, Acid Jackrabbit was gone.

Replacing him was 16 year old Nester Weames, the man behind Acid Jackrabbit. But that was more then his secret identity. It was his springboard to his part in history.

Nester was a pretty average looking teen, abet for very nice looking blonde hair that he cut short. Besides that though, he was average at best. Narrow eyes, a thin nose and cheeks, and a short form had assured all those around him he would be nothing special, and his inability to succeed in sports and average grades pretty much confirmed it. No wonder his mom had left, and his dad spent so much time working. No one wanted to notice him.

But Nester could dream, and he had a big dream: Nester wanted to be a supervillian.

Now, despite his average grades, Nester was not stupid. He knew that the supervillian breed was a hazardous profession. They ALWAYS lost, and the heroes tended to make them look very bad.

But Nester wanted to be one anyway. For you see, despite their bad track records, supervillians ALWAYS got respect. Unlike superheroes, who were only the media's darlings until they found a way to tear them down. But supervillians? People might throw out a few insults, but it was always a nervous and hesitant mockery.

For supervillians broke out. They hatched new schemes. They always came back, even when one thought they were done for good. Best be cautious when you insult a supervillian. He might remember it when he finally gets the magic spell that increases his powers tenfold right.

But superheroes? They could insult, malign, undermine, and tear them down all they wanted. After all, they were superheroes! They wouldn't strike back! And the media had grown VERY bold in the last two decades. Even once unassailable icons like Superman got slandered. But NO one ever insulted Lex Luthor.

Bad win/loss records aside, Nester would prefer being remembered and even feared rather then be a target for scorn.

Problem. Nester had no superpowers nor the ability or connections to get hyper-tech equipment that allowed mimicry of them. He didn't want to fool around with black magic or radioactive/toxic stuff: he'd be far more likely to get killed then get powers. So Nester was in a quandary, until one day on his garbage pickup job he accidentally knocked a can over and out came the golden artifact that he now held.

It was a small disc, about the size of his hand, about three inches thick. Emblazoned on the front were four letters.

The device, throughout history, had had many names. But most who knew of it called it by the four letters that decorated the four buttons on it.

H.E.R.O.

The Hero Device.

The artifact was remarkably simple to operate. All you did was use the letters to spell out H-E-R-O. No other letter combinations would do anything, but the one that did work…

Nester had tested the device extensively, and basically this happened: when you spelled out H-E-R-O, there was a bright flash, and there you were, changed. Taller, more muscular, handsomer (or prettier), and even with a costume. And you now had a metahuman ability. Or maybe even more then one. The only thing the device didn't provide was a name. You had to make one up yourself.

The first time Nester had tested it, just after he had got off work, he had turned into a 7-foot goliath in a brown costume that had the ability to cause earthquakes with his fists and feet. Nester had called him Crack, as in crack in the ground. Not the best name, but hey, Nester was new at this. So Nester caused some trouble, knocked over a few police cars, and found himself screwed as the SWAT team had shown up with heavy weapons. Unfortunately, Crack was not bulletproof. Purely by luck, Nester had found that re-spelling HERO caused the powers to go away. The police, having lost sight of Crack, ignored the normal him, thinking he was just a bystander, and Nester had headed home.

So Nester was set. The only problem with the device was that you couldn't choose what kind of power you wanted. It was totally random. The second time, Nester had turned into a thin, white-garbed and cloaked man with deep-sunken eyes who commanded the ability to make himself intangible to fly and pass through objects. Calling himself The Untouchable, Nester had tried robbing a bank…only to find he couldn't pick up the money. Oh well.

A few weeks of practice later, Nester was ready to make his mark.

And he wasn't going to make the same mistakes all newbie villains did, IE show up thinking he was invincible and commit crimes, only to be shocked when the resident heroes beat him. He was going to beat the heroes first, THEN commit whatever robberies struck his fancy.

And the key word was BEAT them. Not kill them. Not destroy them. Not maim them seriously and walk away. Beat them. What good was a villain without rivals? Nope, Nester would use his abilities to send them packing each time.

Heck, he even took some caution to prevent civilian deaths. He wasn't cold hearted. The only reason he'd landed on the car was because he loved automobiles and studied them constantly, and he knew that the car he had picked out from a distance had a very strong chassis that would probably protect its occupants. Not the most RESPONSIBLE thing to do, but hey, HE WAS A SUPERVILLIAN! He had to do evil things, right?

So Nester had gathered the money he had saved and headed for Jump City. It seemed like a good place to start. He certainly wasn't going to start with Metropolis or Gotham or Keystone. Their heroes were too well established, too powerful, too experienced.

But the Teen Titans? Nester knew he could take them. Yeah, there was the Final Night, but they had had some serious backup muscle. On their own, and with the myriad of abilities he could draw on, Nester was certain he'd be ruling the city's underworld in two weeks.

Or maybe in two days, as Nester cracked his neck and began keying the letters. He hoped he'd get something useful. Flight and invulnerability powers would be nice…

H-E…

And then Terra flew up near him.

And Nester, unable to help himself, even though she was facing the other way, started.

And the device slipped from his sweat-slicked hands and fell off the edge of the roof.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Nester screamed, trying to grab it. But he missed, and he moaned as he watched it fall.

"Hey Kid!"

Nester's blood ran cold. She'd seen him. Without the device he was powerless. He hadn't even made an impact. He'd probably be on page 12 at best…

"Did you see some guy in an ugly costume?" Terra asked, floating on her rock. Her face didn't have the slightest look of suspicion.

She didn't know. She must have though Nester was startled when she flew up. She hadn't made the connection to Acid Jackrabbit.

"Uh, yeah! I think he went that way! But he was going real fast, so I didn't really see!" Nester said, putting on his best ignorant rubbernecker impression.

"Thanks! You may wanna stay off the roof, he could come back." Terra said, and flew off in the direction that Nester had pointed.

Nester sighed in relief, and then he remembered that the device was still gone. Dammit! He had to get it back before some idiot picked it up and took away his chance to be a part of history!

Nester turned and ran for the stairwell, running down all 19 flights at top speed without falling down and breaking his neck somehow. He burst out onto the street, looking around where he gathered the device would fall.

Nothing. It was gone.

Despair clawed at Nester's heart. He searched anyway, checking the gutters, nearby trash cans, everywhere. Fortunately, there was no one walking on the street at the time, but if no one was walking…

"WHERE IS IT!!?!?!??!?!" Nester screamed.

He would not be denied! Fate had seen that device into his hands! He would not lose it!

But…how did he get it back?

* * *

Andrew Benjamin didn't have the best life.

Perhaps I seem to be echoing myself, but let me assure you, that's not my intent. Mostly.

Andrew Benjamin was not quite sixteen yet. He was tall, but he was also pretty chubby. His dirty blonde hair was thin and frizzy, and tended to go wild no matter how carefully he combed and gelled it. And while the glasses he used to wear had been replaced by contacts, Andrew had other problems.

He had supposedly been out of school a few weeks ago for ten days due to a severe case of pneumonia. The truth was, Andrew's genetic curse had flared up again: he had suffered a severe case of acne. And this wasn't some small zit that teenagers would usually obsess over: this was a SERIOUS rash.

Andrew didn't eat many sweets and had very good personal hygiene. The acne was genetic. His father had had it, so had his grandfather. He wondered if they had been treated any better then Andrew was when he had an attack like that.

Probably not. It was why his parents let him call in sick. They knew, all too well, what his peers would do with his condition. Considering Andrew had one of his friends bring him his school assignments, they knew it would overall be better if he stayed home and waited for the condition to pass then for him to go to school and suffer the consequences of possessing a difference in that elite group of snobs he had to mingle with.

Andrew supposed he didn't have it too bad. His parents loved him and treated him well. He had a good sense of humor. And he had the foresight to know that high school was just a small part of one's life. The ones who would have taunted and tormented him for something he could not control or get rid of probably were experiencing their best days already. Misery would come for them eventually. And he had a fair amount of smarts and creativity.

Not to mention a few other lucky bonuses. While convalescing with his "flu", Andrew had been out of school when Marissa Mori had gone insane. Andrew had watched it all on the news: it had been truly terrible. Marissa was still in the hospital, in a deep coma, from what he had read. He could have it worse. He could have a sexually abusive father that had driven him insane.

But still…Andrew was unhappy.

Even with the good stuff, one always wants to be respected and liked by one's peers, and even all the rationalizing and understanding on why his peers didn't accept him and probably never would didn't keep away the dull pain. Even the events of the Mori Massacre, as the papers called it, hadn't kept the teasing away for long.

People. They never learned.

And so Andrew walked this evening, wondering why people did stuff, and if there was any solution to his problem.

Maybe it was just a matter of time.

Maybe he would be spending the rest of his life on a psychiatrist's couch as the small problems continued to rub at him under his skin, like grains of sand, not doing any damage but still there, still grating and rasping through his being, never giving him complete peace in the fact that nothing is promised in life and in the end he may be nothing special at all…

The scream stopped him short. If it hadn't, the device probably would have landed on his head. That would have put a quick end to his problems, abet in a way that wouldn't allow him to enjoy that as he would be dead.

He blinked and looked down, and then he looked up.

Wait…was that a woman? Floating on a rock? It must be Terra, of the Titans…did she drop this?  
Andrew picked up the device.

"Hero?" he said, reading the text. She must have dropped it. She was a superhero, and this said "Hero" on it…she really should be more careful…

And then she was flying away.

"HEY! WAIT!" Andrew yelled, following Terra. But she was too fast, and he wasn't in the best of shape, and after a block she was long gone. Gasping for air, Andrew stopped, leaning against the wall of the alleyway he had tried to take a shortcut through.

"Damn…now what do I do?" Andrew asked himself. The Titans didn't have a listed phone number, and he couldn't just head for their island: they were paranoid about security after that mess with the hate group that had tried to set up shop outside Jump City. Maybe he should call the police, or the newspapers…but how could he guarantee that some unscrupulous person wouldn't just keep this…thing as a souvenir or something…

And come to think of it, what was this thing anyway?

Andrew looked down at the device. He ran a hand along the surface and found that where the letters were, there were indentations. Buttons.

Andrew pressed the R, thinking it might be some kind of multi-purpose crime fighting device. Nothing. He tried the O. Nothing.

And then, as any curious human might have, he tried pressing the buttons in the order of the word that they formed.

H…E…R…O.

FLASH!

Even quickly, having your own basic matter being altered and reconstructed, especially when one is not expecting it, can be a highly disorganizing experience. Hence, it took Andrew about thirty seconds to realize the change.

For one thing, his was taller.

Another, his slight gut was gone, replaced with a six-pack.

Abet one he couldn't see, due to the all-blue skintight costume he was now wearing.

Not to mention his hair: it now stood straight up, a radiant gold. He'd have won first place in a Super Saiyan lookalike contest.

Shocked, Andrew dropped the device, looking at his hands, wondering what had just happened.

And then electricity crackled into being on them, coursing through his palms and fingers. Andrew could FEEL the power running through the digits, and yet at the same time, he felt a great calm. As if they…were his to command.

Power…command…

"Well…this is interesting." Andrew said.

To Be Continued.


	20. I'll Be Your HERO: The Stones In Hell's

Chapter 22: The Stones in Hell's Road

It had been two days since the Titans had fought Acid Jackrabbit. Aggravated that he had disappeared, but unable to do anything about it, the Titans had headed home, where Beast Boy had spent an hour in the shower and used up all the hot water. The Titans forgave him that: Gar had really been miserable with the chemical Acid Jackrabbit had sprayed on him.

Nester Weames was holed up in a cheap hotel, stewing and plotting, trying to figure out how the hell he was going to get the HERO Device back.

And Andrew Benjamin's parents were getting very worried: they hadn't seen their son in a few days. They'd just heard his voice behind his door, asking not to be bothered. Something was off: his voice seemed deeper then usual. Well, Andrew was a good kid: they were certain he'd tell them what was wrong in time.

And Andrew Benjamin…well, he had altered a radio he owned to pick up police signals and was waiting.

It didn't take too long.

* * *

The usual day for the Titans. The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The alarms were buzzing as the Titans were called to the scene of a crime.

Three smoldering wrecks that had once been police cars greeted the Titans as they arrived. The police were now hiding behind a building. Robin dropped down and spoke with them, and then signaled to the Titans. Raven vanished into the shadows as Gauntlet ran for the bank that the burning wrecks were outside of.

Why just them? It was something the Titans had worked out. The destruction of the cars meant either a metahuman was leading the robbers or that they had advanced technology. The police couldn't tell which: the blasts that had destroyed their cars and left a few craters in the road had just come from inside the bank, they hadn't seen what fired them.

Hence, Raven and Gauntlet went in. Normally Cyborg would join them, but he was, as mentioned, absent. The three of them had the best protection: Raven with her shields and teleporting ability, Gauntlet with his self-named artifact, and Cyborg with his body, had he been there. They could assert the exact nature of the threat and prepare the others. Which could be good for some of the lesser-protected ones, like Beast Boy.

Raven appeared first, and at first glance nothing seemed out of the ordinary: several men in hoods with guns were pulling money out of the vault. She was out of sight, and hence the robbers didn't see her.

They saw Gauntlet though, as he came crashing in through a window. They immediately opened fire on him. His yellow energy sprang out to protect him.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" Raven chanted, levitating a few desks, a potted plant, and a few other miscellaneous items up, hurling them at the robbers, disarming them, knocking them down, and generally causing them misery. Since they were no longer shooting at him, Gauntlet leapt over and lashed out with twin energy bludgeons, knocking down and out all the robbers Raven had missed. He looked into the vault.

"AH HA!" he said.

And then a blast of blue energy exploded from within the vault, blowing Gauntlet across the room. He crashed into the wall next to Raven.

"Found out what shot that energy that blew up the cop cars." Gauntlet muttered. "Oh, pretty colors…"

Another blast of energy exploded from within. Raven threw up a shield but the projectile was too strong, and her shield shattered as she was thrown into Gauntlet as he was trying to get up, sending them both tumbling down in a heap.

"Ok, awkward." Gauntlet said.

A few more windows exploded in as the rest of the Titans came in, drawing by the noises within. Raven floated up without a word and flew over to them as the unseen foe finally strolled out of the vault.

Robin arched an eyebrow. He was a young man in a black cloak that covered him, with a relatively handsome abet nondescript face, unremarkable abet for a scar on his right cheek that traced along his cheekbone and jaw. What made him stand out was his hair: it stood up above his head like Noel's, abet in a more concentrated flow: while Noel's hair was composed of several spikes, this man just had one, and it was semi-formed at that. One giant point of hair fell over his face, and he had even more hair coming from the back of his "spike", going down past his shoulders. He looked at the Titans and crossed his arms.

"Superheroes. Figures." He said in an English accent.

"And who might YOU be?" Beast Boy asked.

"Evil John."

Pause.

"That's it?"

"Simplicity is the best, in my opinion." Evil John said, and thrust up his gloved hands. Energy exploded from his palms and blasted at the Titans, catching Starfire and Raven again as the rest of them scattered.

Terra rolled away, gesturing at the floor. A chunk of the marble base ripped out and was hurled at Evil John. He blasted it out of the air. Annoyed, Terra ripped up another chunk and concentrated. The chunk exploded into a thousand small parts, which she fired at Evil John like a machine gun.

Evil John grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around himself. The pebbles exploded against it, but the bank-robbing villain stayed up, taking the barrage until Terra ran out of ammo. Evil John then lowered the cloak, looking thoughtful.

"Huh. Pebbleproof as well as bulletproof."

"How about LIONPROOF?" Beast Boy yelled as he leapt into the air, transforming into the king of beasts, and pounced on Evil John, driving him to the ground…

As Evil John drove his fists into Beast Boy's torso.

"Poor choice."

Evil John blew Beast Boy off of him with a wailing cry of "Not AGAAAAIIINNNN!". "Hence I don't need it to be." Evil John said, as he reared up his legs and flipped to his feet.

Only to see Robin, Starfire, and Raven attacking him, courtesy of a Birdarang, Starbolt, and telekinetically thrown metal garbage can. Evil John cartwheeled out of the way and responded with a powerful counter blast that sent the three flying via the shockwaves. Evil John smirked, and then ducked over the rock Terra had hurled at his back and nailed her in the chest with another blast, smashing her against Gauntlet and sending THEM tumbling into a heap.

"Even MORE awkward." Gauntlet said.

"Look Titans, I don't want to cause you any more pain, so if you don't mind…" Evil John said, picking up one of the moneybags.

"I MIND!"

And then a new figure leapt through the window. Evil John arched an eyebrow.

"Don't recall seeing you on the list."

"I am the new scourge of evil! You may have disabled the Titans, villain, but now you must face…BLITZ!"

Yep, it was Andrew Benjamin, in all his blue-suited and golden haired glory, having finally decided this would be the perfect time to carry out his plan. He had powers due to that device, and he thought it would be better if he used them for the good of mankind rather then his own selfish gain. Now he would show the Titans what he could do.

Evil John burst out laughing.

Ok, not the best start.

"Blitz? Geez. Hey kid, Bob and George is THAT way." Evil John said, rubbing his nose as he snickered.

"I would just like to note that while my banter may not always be A-List, at least I never strayed into the realms of cliché that that guy used to make his entrance." Gauntlet said.

"You mock me evildoer? You shall not be laughing once I show you my shocking powers!" Blitz yelled, as he thrust out his hands and fired a blast of electricity at Evil John.

Evil John ducked, and the blast flew harmlessly overhead.

"Ah, voltage, hence, shocking. How droll." Evil John said, and countered with his own powerful energy blast. Blitz yelped in surprise.

"MOVE KID!" Robin yelled, leaping and shoving Blitz out of the way. He took the blast instead, and was blown out the doors of the bank with a yell.

"Robin!" Starfire said, and fired a barrage of Starbolts at Evil John. Evil John countered with his own blasts, and the resulting shockwave of both blasts meeting each other knocked all the Titans back down. They quickly got up and surrounded Evil John.

"Scoundrel! You have harmed a great superhero! Now I, his brother in arms, will avenge him!" Blitz said, getting back up as electricity suddenly crackled all over his body. "FEEL MY FURY!"

"Wait, is he using lightning or just plain electricity…" Beast Boy said.

The changeling found out quickly. For you see, the design of lightning makes it go in one direction. But a general burst of electricity? That, without a proper conductor, goes pretty much everywhere.

It was electricity.

The Titans yelped and howled and generally expressed their displeasure, as arcing electrical blasts were suddenly everywhere, hunting out metal and liquid and anything that could serve as a conductor. Evil John, who had rubber-soled boots and an insulated cape, merely ducked down as the Titans scattered and leapt and rolled and generally got shocked despite their best dodging.

"Ohhhhhh…dear." Blitz said, as he saw his attack backfire and harm his comrades. Maybe electrical abilities weren't his strong point. BUT, everyone was occupied with his mistake, he could slip out and make a quick change. So he did, pulling out the golden circle.

"Dude, is that guy on your side and just putting on an act? Really." Beast Boy asked, his green fur now standing straight up.

"Never seen him before. Looks like you could say the same thing." Evil John said.

"Yeah, no bull." Beast Boy said, and then transformed into one, charging at Evil John. Evil John leapt up to avoid it…

And flew into a Starbolt. Evil John was blasted to the ground, and he tumbled a bit before he righted himself. Then a yellow energy palm slapped him across the room. He dropped his money sack as he hit the wall. He growled a bit and fired three quick blasts. Explosions rang through the bank. Thankfully, there were no hostages, and Raven had carried out Evil John's unconscious henchmen to the police and was now making her way back. Her eyes glowed as she thrust her hands down, and a black energy claw tore from the floor, grabbing at Evil John. Evil John showed good battle strategy by ignoring the claw and firing his energy blasts at Raven, blasting her and throwing her to the ground.

Where she was caught.

"Fear not, my lovely goth! This foe of ours has dared played the extreme sport of villainy, and we shall make him wear the helmet and elbow pads of justice!"

Raven blinked, and looked up.

The giant who held her towered at nine feet tall and he looked as if he had taken more steroids then all the athletes of professional sports combined. His outfit was brown and red, and he had twin small antenna poking from his head and a big F on his chest.

"Who the heck?"

"I am…THE FLEA!" Andrew declared. It was a good thing Raven was in his arms: otherwise she would have facevaulted so hard she would have broken her jaw. He put her down.

"My god…he ripped off the Tick! Blasphemy!" Gauntlet said, and then ducked as Evil John fired another blast at him.

Then he saw the Flea.

"What in the name of sanity…" Evil John said.

"Yes, behold me evildoer! Your skullduggery ends now! Feel afraid, defeated, miserable, for they are but some of the 31 flavors of justice served up by me!"

"Oh man…" Gauntlet said, burying his face in his hands.

Evil John didn't see perturbed. Instead, he just blasted the Flea.

The Flea didn't even budge, as he smiled a big toothy grin.

"Your foul evil blasts cannot harm the forces of justice! Now you shall fall! SPOOORRRKKKKK!" The Flea bellowed, and charged at Evil John.

Evil John opened fire again, but the Flea wasn't even slowed down as he blitzed (heh) at Evil John, bellowing and pulling back his massive fist.

And just as he reached him, Evil John stepped to the side and stuck out his foot.

"WHOOPS!" The Flea yelped as he tripped over the outstretched foot and stumbled forward, smashing through the wall and continuing on. The sound of him smashing things was only made more disturbing as how the whole bank started to tremble.

"Oh dear, it appears your friend has damaged the structure of the building. May as well finish what he started." Evil John said, as he picked up his cash bag. Before the Titans could do anything, he leapt, spun around, and fired a giant blast that threw him through the air and out one of the broken windows. "Toodle-oo!"

"Ah crap." Robin said.

And as Evil John landed outside and started running, the whole bank collapsed, falling apart completely from the abuse it had suffered.

For a moment, Jump City was silent, as the cops came out from under their cover to see what the heck had just happened.

And then a black portal appeared, and Raven, with the rest of the Titans, appeared out of it.

"Hope they were insured." Raven said with distaste.

And with a sudden racket, rubble flew aside as the Flea hurled the wreckage off of him.

"Foul chicanery! I, the Flea, will apply the red marker of justice to the unstudied test of evil…!"

"NO, YOU WILL NOT!" Robin yelled, suddenly in front of the Flea. "You will not do anything!"

"But Robin…I am sorry about my mistakes…and my, er, partner, Blitz's mistakes as well…but I want to…"

"You wanna help? Then both of you stay away! You BOTH suck!" Robin snapped, and then waved at the Titans. "MOVE! He can't have gotten far!"

The Flea looked sad as the Titans took off, his arms limp at his sides.

"I just want to…awwwww." The Flea said, and then turned around, running for the nearest alleyway. THIS time, he'd get a good form.

* * *

And Nester Weames was listening to the radio in rapt attention, as a reporter commented on what she had seen from a helicopter above the bank. What had caught his ear was that not one, but two new costumed metahumans had shown up to aid the Titans. In the space of a few minutes.

Someone had his device, and now he had a general idea of where they were. He grabbed his coat and ran out the door.

* * *

Evil John had gone a block to his convertible, where he tossed the bag of money he had stolen into the back and hopped into the front. He pulled out his keys and inserted them, flooring it.

His car was turning the corner when Terra spotted him, and she signaled the Titans, and they took off after Evil John, the flying ones flying and the non-flying ones running along the roofs.

Evil John saw them in his rearview mirror, and he sighed. Turning around, he fired a blast into the air, but it missed Starfire and she countered with her own salvo of Starbolts. Evil John swerved his car left and right to avoid the blasts.

A Birdarang whizzed past his head, and another one slammed into the door next to him.

"Hey, watch the paint!" Evil John yelled.

Beast Boy swooped down as a griffon, even as Raven levitated objects to throw at him. Getting more annoyed, Evil John stood up and did his best impression of another John , that being Travolta from _Swordfish,_ as he fired blasts on each side of him, causing several cars to explode and ignite a wall of fire that brought the two up short.

Evil John chuckled to himself, and then a pointed pillar of rock exploded up from the ground several feet in front of him. He yelped and yanked hard on the wheel, swerving around the pillar at the last second. Terra growled from her flying rock and tried again, more pointed spires erupting from the ground in front of Evil John's car, but he dodged those as well. Terra growled again. She had always had some trouble hitting small, fast moving targets.

Starfire flew in again and ate a power blast that blew her up and into the sky. Gauntlet watched her fly up, and he wondered what he could do, he really didn't have any long range attacks…

And then a blue and red blur flew past him.

"…da hell?" Gauntlet said, as the figure flew past the car, zipping over the rooftops to get ahead of Evil John before he flew over and down in front of him.

"HALT!"

"Oh no, not another one!" Robin said.

"You shall go no farther!" Andrew said. Now his costume was composed completely of the British flag. It was on his chest, his cape, his legs, his mask, everywhere. "Your evil deeds end now! So swears Baron Bravery!"

"Oh for the love of…" Evil John said, and floored it. Baron Bravery held out his arm, not showing a whit of fear.

"Your plot is futile villain! I am invincible!" Baron Bravery said.

Then the car crashed into him, and Baron Bravery was thrown over the front, skidding over the windshield and flying over Evil John's head, rolling off the back of his car and hitting the ground.

"Methinks he didn't read the fine print." Evil John said. Time to get lost. Now he needed the money to make repairs to his…

Then he saw it.

The first Birdarang may have missed his head, but it had hit something else: the money bag, ripping open a large hole in it. So busy had Evil John been with the Titans he hadn't noticed all his money blowing out of the bag.

"BLOODY HELL!" Evil John cursed, as he turned around a corner. "Forget this! I'm bored. I gotta find me some bloody tea…!"

And Evil John drove off, unmolested, as the Titans had gathered to check on their fallen "ally". By the time any thought to check, Evil John was long gone.

"Ohhhhhhh…" Baron Bravery said, sitting up. "What gives? I thought I was invulnerable…"

"Actually, there are two kinds of invulnerability." Gauntlet said as he dropped down. "The kind where nothing can hurt you, and the kind where you're so dense that anything striking you not only doesn't hurt you, it hurts THEM as well. Apparently you had the former."

"What…but I…awwww man…." Baron Bravery said.

"Ok buddy, what gives? Is there some gathering for incompetent superheroes in town that we didn't hear about, or what?" Robin asked, looking cross that Evil John had gotten away.

"Incompetent…no! I just wanted to help!" Baron Bravery said, getting up.

"Yes, you certainly helped. Helped Evil John get away. Bravo." Raven said dryly as she floated down.

"Ah back off Raven! He had good intentions!" Terra replied.

"And let's not forget what the road to hell is paved with." Raven shot back.

"But…" Baron Bravery said, and then a slight turn of his body caused it. A golden disc detached from his waist and fell down, rolling to Robin's feet. Baron Bravery's eyes widened.

"And what's THIS?" Robin said, picking it up.

"WAIT! DON'T! That's…oh forget it, I shouldn't have had it anyway. You dropped it." Baron Bravery said, his shoulders slumping. "At least let me use it to turn back."

"Do what now?" Robin said. Baron Bravery suddenly had the device, courtesy of some enhanced speed, and he pressed the letter keys. With a flash, Baron Bravery was gone, replaced by ordinary Andrew Benjamin.

"Whoa. Didn't see that coming." Gauntlet said.

"Ah HA! This explains it! You were all three of those idiot superheroes! Somehow this device gave you powers!" Robin said, snatching it back.

"GREAT detective work there Fearless." Raven said.

"…And you must have been Acid Jackrabbit as well!" Robin said.

"What?" Andrew said.

"What?" Gauntlet echoed.

"What?" Terra and Beast Boy echoed as well.

"This thing gives out random powers, and takes them away! Acid Jackrabbit just disappeared, so therefore…!" Robin said.

"Hey hey wait! I wasn't anyone called Acid Jackrabbit. And you had the device before! You dropped it!" Andrew said, pointing to Terra.

"What? No I didn't!" Terra said.

"Yes you did! That thing nearly fell on my head! And you were flying above me!" Andrew said.

"But I didn't have it…which means…that kid! I thought it was weird he was all alone on that roof! HE must have had the device! And he dropped it, and you picked it up…and hence he can't be Acid Jackrabbit." Terra said.

"What IS this anyway?" Gauntlet said, taking the golden disc.

"I believe it's the H.E.R.O artifact. I've heard a few things about it. Supposedly it gives special powers to any human who spells out the word hero on it. But most people believed it to be a myth. I guess they were wrong." Raven said.

"It gives normal people special powers?" Gauntlet said.

"Yes."

"Hey, then I wonder what happens…" Gauntet said as he began to press the keys.

"Hey Gauntlet don't you don't know…!" Raven said.

Too late.

The bright white flash was accompanied by a sizzling noise this time, along with an unpleasant smell. Gauntlet was thrown across the road and hit the wall as the device clattered to the floor, smoking.

"Gauntlet!" Starfire said, flying over. She was joined by Robin and Terra.

"Yeslegfawhgskshwahiwhgsioshajshsoshreornamaihgepdjhshawhoohoohoo! Error in kernal 865!" Gauntlet babbled.

Picking the device up via telekinesis, Raven examined it. Strangely, a small new panel had folded over and a new phrase had appeared.

PLEASE REBOOT DEVICE.

"Rob you idiot." Raven said, and put the device on the ground and pressed the buttons with a black-energy encased stick. With a small flash, the device vanished and re-appeared, the scorch marks that had appeared on it vanishing.

"What happened?" Beast Boy asked, walking over.

"A device that gives normal people special powers, mixed with Gauntlet's artifact. It was like trying to run Doom 3 on a Commodore 64." Raven said, coming over. "Gauntlet, you shouldn't have used the device, you could have killed yourself."

"I can hear my hair." Gauntlet muttered.

Raven sighed.

"My pockets hurt." Gauntlet added.

"It's your own fault. That device wasn't meant for someone like you." Raven said.

"Hey Titans!" Andrew suddenly yelled.

"Indeed! It was meant for me!" came a new voice, almost at the same time of Andrew's shouted warning, and then Titans whirled.

There stood Nester Weames, triumphantly holding up the HERO Device, having come to the area and followed the trail of destruction and been granted incredible luck: the device was there, just lying on the ground, the Titans not even looking at it. All he had had to do was run up to it and grab it.

"This shows it! This relic is destined to be mine! Prepare Titans!" Nester said, as he pressed the keys.

"NO!" Robin yelled, as the Titans tried to stop him…

Too late.

A bright flash.

And then a purple blur blasted among the Titans, knocking them all down before they even knew what had hit them. The blur zipped away, stopping briefly to reveal Weames's new form in a purple costume with what looked like a shark's fin on his head, as he laughed and then zoomed off.

"Speed powers. Damn it." Robin said, as he got up. "Ok Titans, we have ourselves a real big one. We have a foe who can change powers at random. So we better…"

"Worse then that…" Gauntlet said, shaking his head as he pulled himself to his feet. The Titans looked at him.

"What Gauntlet?"

"When I tried it, that device linked with me briefly…and…we have a problem…"

"What?"

"The powers the device grants are random, and in that random draw is something that comes along occasionally. A jackpot, if you will. We're talking Superman-level powers." Gauntlet said.

The Titans stared.

"But…we shouldn't worry too much, right? It's totally random! He could try a thousand times and not get that!" Terra said.

"Yes…if the device hadn't rebooted itself. Now…I think the jackpot will be a lot closer to the top then it was before. We don't have to beat a foe who can change powers at random. We have to beat one before he gains the power of a god and accidentally destroys the whole world."

A pause.

"You can do it!" Andrew said.

"Yeah, thanks for the morale boost Mr. Schneider. Ok Titans, you know our mission. Be prepared for anything. GO!" Robin yelled, and the Titans headed off after Nester Weames.

(Writer's Note: Evil John created by fanfiction author Jedi-And. Thanks for the borrow! While you're here at the site, go check out his Titans fanfic, Flashing Lights and Sounds…)


	21. I'll Be Your HERO: With Great Power

Chapter 23: With Great Power…

"How are we going to catch him anyway? With speed powers he could be in China by now!" Terra said.

A bright flash on a nearby building top caught the Titans' attention before anyone could answer.

"Somehow, I don't think whoever that was wants to run. He didn't as Acid Jackrabbit. He wants a showdown." Robin said. "Everyone converge on the rooftop at once! We can't let him pick us off one by one!" Robin said.

Another bright flash ignited the roof as the Titans scattered and charged the rooftop.

"Ah, Robin!" Nester said as the leader appeared. He had changed forms: instead of the purple speedster he was now dressed in what looked like an outfit made of leaves. His face and body were smudged with dirt, and he had twigs and sticks woven into his hair. But it didn't look like he had just been dragged through a forest: somehow it fit.

Robin whipped out his staff as his allies flew up around the rooftop.

"I am Robin as well! Robin Goodfellow, to be exact! Let's begin your last dream on this midsummer's eve!" Robin Goodfellow declared, and leapt at a speed that Robin had not been expecting, effortlessly dodging Robin's staff swipe and punching him across the face.

"Captain of our fairy band, Helena is here at hand!" Robin Goodfellow chanted as he flipped over Robin's falling body, cartwheeled and leapt through the air, jumping through the gap between Starfire's twin Starbolts and slamming both his feet into her chest. "And the youth mistook by me…!" Robin Goodfellow fell to the ground, rolling in a tight somersault that dodged all of Terra's thrown rocks before he bounced off the ground, leapt up, grabbed Terra around the neck with his feet and ankles, and threw her hard into the rooftop. "Pleading for a lover's fee!" Robin Goodfellow landed and did several backflips away from Beast Boy's lunging ape form before he suddenly did some bizarre reverse move where he started going back and then suddenly snapped himself forward, flipping over Beast Boy's lunging arms and landing on his head, driving it into the ground, hard. "Shall we their fond pageant see?" Robin Goodfellow did a full split to avoid the chunk of railing Raven threw at him and then he rolled and leapt up, grabbing Raven's cape and whirling around her, wrapping her up and pulling her down to the ground with a loud thud. "LORD WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE!" he finished, throwing his arms up.

And Gauntlet nailed him from behind, sending him flying off the roof with a muffled curse. Gauntlet didn't bother to check if it was another line from Puck: he was doing a once over of his teammates. They were fine, just stunned, and he followed Robin Goodfellow, who had bounced back and forth between the walls of the buildings on his way down to the street. A bright flash ignited as Gauntlet was halfway down, and when he landed Nester was punching in the code again. _Ah crap, don't be…!_

"Ah ha! You again!" Nester said as he completed the code. A bright flash lit up the street. When it faded, Nester was…a bull humanoid in a loincloth. Gauntlet felt relieved.

"Now I shall crush you! I am MURDERTAUR!" Nester, aka Murdertaur bellowed, and then he stampeded at Gauntlet.

Gauntlet jumped over him.

Murdertaur continued his charge as Gauntlet landed. Apparently Nester had misjudged this form's capacity to stop, as he continued storming down the empty road.

"Um, WHOA!" Gauntlet yelled, and finally Murdertaur managed to stop.

"Look, I know you're still a bit new to the whole supervillian thing, but uh, how are we supposed to slug it out if you're stampeding off in the other direction?" Gauntlet said.

"I'll smash you to pieces!"

"YOU? Bullshit. Please, I'm sick of this bull! I think this is a bunch of bull!" Gauntlet said.

"AND YOUR BANTER IS STILL TERRIBLE!" Murdertaur roared as he charged again. But he was too slow again, as Gauntlet dodged aside.

"Bullseye! Not!" Gauntlet quipped. "Time to round this up pardner, because there's a new sheriff in these parts, and he goes by the name of Buckaroo Bob, The One-Gauntlet Kid!" Rob said in his best John Wayne, and threw out the Gauntlet's yellow energy field like a lasso, having it fall and wrap tightly over Murdertaur's shoulders.

Murdertaur just snorted and grabbed the yellow energy, pulling down so hard Gauntlet was sent flying straight up into the air.

"WHOA! Ok, how about the FLYING One-Gauntlet Kid!?!?" Gauntlet yelped as he flew up. He did a slow flip and then fell, back in control and aiming for a specific spot. "Time to take the bull by the horns!"

And he landed on Murdertaur's back.

"GRUPH?" Nester said in confusion.

"Gruph? I'm sure that's a translation for, RIDE 'EM ROBBIE!" Gauntlet whooped. Murdertaur snorted and obliged by charging and jumping and thrashing all over the place, trying to throw Gauntlet off.

"Maybe I lost something in the translation?" Gauntlet asked himself as Murdertaur continued his efforts. "Hey, this is actually kind of fun! Do you mind? I've always wanted to yell this: YEE-HA!!!!!!!!!!!"

Murdertaur resorted to ramming himself into walls, but Gauntlet clung tenaciously, though Murdertaur managed to twist him so that he was hanging over Murdertaur's shoulders, face to face with him, abet upside down.

"If you're going to fight this close to heroes in the future, may I suggest a breath mint?" Gauntlet inquired. Murdertaur just bellowed and charged again, trying to squash Gauntlet's upper half between his head and a wall, but Gauntlet pulled himself up at the last second and Murdertaur ran smack into a steel wall, head first. He reeled back, his legs now bowlegged.

"Ok buddy, time to wrap this up, starting with your feet!" Gauntlet said as he thrust out his arm, the yellow energy flying out and wrapping around Nester's now cloven feet. In one swift move, Gauntlet dove forward, did a quick tuck and roll, jumped back and past Murdertaur, and yanked as hard as he could, sending Murdertaur tumbling heads over heels across the street.

"If you sprain a horn, feel free to charge me, but the last thing I need is a charging man-bull!" Gauntlet finished, as Murdertaur crashed into a car. "Now, WHOSE banter sucks?"

"WHY YOU!" Murdertaur snarled as he got up, and then a loud mooing caught his ear. He turned just as a green cow slammed into his side, causing him to fall over onto its back. Beast Boy then pitched Murdertaur up and thrust out his hind legs, slamming him over another car.

"HA! Chalk one up for the cow, and that's no bull!" Gauntlet added, as Beast Boy became human again, looking very pleased.

A bright flash on the other side of the car took away his grin.

"Oh no not…!"

Another bright flash, as Robin and Terra arrived.

"THE ICEMAN COMETH!" Nester yelled as he floated up, now a pale bald man in a blue and white costume with a furred cloak. "I am Lord December! Now is the winter of my discontent!"

"At least winning is still in season." Gauntlet quipped, as Lord December fired a giant freeze blast at him and Beast Boy. Gauntlet threw up a yellow energy shield, and since it wasn't enough to stop the blast and since the energy shield couldn't be frozen, instead the ice blast went everywhere, freezing the ground, building walls, and everything else.

Robin, trying to keep his footing, hurled an explosive disc at Lord December, but he erected an ice wall in front of him and it exploded harmlessly on that. He floated up, and then a powerful and chilling wind whipped into effect. Starfire flew down, firing Starbolts, but the intense wind cut straight to the bone, and she couldn't concentrate enough to aim properly.

Gauntlet formed ice skates with his yellow energy and skated over to where Lord December was floating, thrusting an energy fist at him. Lord December countered with a quickly-formed ice battering ram, and the impact of the two meeting drove both of them back. Raven appeared out of the shadows, but as she raised her hands and began to chant her cloak suddenly frosted over and became encased in thick ice, causing her to fall to the ground.

"Nuts!" Terra said as she flew down next to Gauntlet. "Don't worry, a quick volcanic eruption should turn the heat up quickly!"

"In the middle of Jump City? Even I think that's a bad idea." Gauntlet replied.

"Point. Ok then, let's even up the playing field!" Terra said as she jumped off the rock she was riding and slammed her fist into the ground. The entire street buckled, shattering the ice on top of it. Now able to move, somewhat, Robin ran in again and leapt, swinging his staff…

Until he found himself encased in a big block of ice, only his head sticking out.

"Cold enough for you?" Lord December chuckled.

Growling, Beast Boy, in a form of a polar bear, suddenly reared up behind Lord December and swiped him with a powerful bat with his huge paw, claws sheathed of course, lest he rip the villain in half. It was enough to send Lord December across the entire street and into a wall of ice that came crashing down around him in a hail of sharp daggers. He snorted and flew up, as Starfire flew over to Robin and placed her hand on the ice, melting it, as Raven, having had to discard her cloak again, and along with Terra, flew after Lord December.

"Don't get in my way!" Raven snapped.

"Please, you'll just get in mine!" Terra said, as Lord December finished his flight and landed on the roof. Terra thrust out her arm, willing boulders to fly at the cold-commanding villain, and then she realized she was a few hundred feet above the ground. She'd need ammo. So she called it, ripping chunks of concrete from the ground below.

"Terra! Stop that! You're destabilizing the building!" Raven yelled. Terra sweatdropped as she realized that the building was getting pretty wobbly…

And that was all Lord December needed as he hurled a huge ball of ice that crashed against Terra and sent her flying across the sky and into the nearby Jump City harbor.

"Stupid twit." Raven said, as she turned and thrust up her arms. Black energy claws emerged beneath Lord December, wrapping around him and pinning his arms to his side before she nailed him with a powerful telepathic bolt, sending him flying across the sky himself. Only a carefully formed ice slide kept him from going through the side of an office building, as he came crashing back down to Earth.

"Dammit, enough of this!" Nester said as he got up, pulling out the HERO Device. He pressed in the keys, and with a bright flash he was back to normal…

And throwing himself to the ground as the Birdarang whizzed above him. Nester definitely had some good instincts, as he pressed the keys again.

FLASH!

"Oh no!" Robin said, as Nester arose, now fully garbed in a pitch-black armoured costume and mask. He almost looked like Robin's mentor Batman, abet without ears or a bat sign on his chest. Was this the jackpot?

Raven swooped down…

And Nester's new form reached up, and a gauntlet of some kind of his arm fired. It was too fast for Raven to put up a shield, as a small black orb struck her right between the eyes and knocked her silly. She fell to the ground, as Robin growled and extended his staff.

Nester turned and fired again, five extremely quick shots, all aimed in the same spot. They all struck the staff, and the fifth one broke it after the first four weakened it. Robin blinked, and then threw it down as he thrust his arms up, his fingers spreading as six metal rings appeared between them. He hurled them all at Nester's new form in a twisting, swirling pattern…

And Nester shot them all out of the air anyway.

"Give up Robin! You can't beat me, the Midnight Marauder!" Nester laughed.

"How about I then?" Starfire asked, flying and firing a blitzkrieg of Starbolts. The Midnight Marauder dodged all of them in a series of flipping jumps, and then bounced off a wall and leapt up, slamming the heel of his foot into Starfire's face. She went crashing through a window as Robin took her place. But the Midnight Marauder blocked all of his punches and kicks, his arms blurring around in the form of a combat genius. Which Robin experienced the hard way as the Midnight Marauder grabbed his arm, flipped Robin over him, and as he was in mid-flip thrust out his leg, slamming it into Robin's chest and sending him tumbling across the street.

"Hey!" Gauntlet yelled, as he picked up a nearby car. "CATCH!"

Gauntlet threw the car at the Midnight Marauder.

And the Midnight Marauder pulled something from his belt, some kind of twin-handed crossbow like weapon, and fired it. The small arrow-shaped projectile split into two, a thin red laser line trailing between the two parts. The line hit the car and the tips were spun around from the impact, wrapping more of the line around the same spot. There was a brief sizzling noise, and then the car SPLIT IN TWO, the laser lines having sliced it in half, both halves crashing to the ground on each side of the Midnight Marauder.

"Er…good catch." Gauntlet said. The Midnight Marauder didn't reply: instead he fired four of his marble-sized orb weapons at the wall next to Gauntlet, aiming for incredibly small cracks in a manner so precise it was scary.

With a loud crunching noise, cracks ran across the wall and it broke apart, tumbling down on Gauntlet.

A loud rumbling noise came from behind the Midnight Marauder, and he turned to see Beast Boy charging at him as a triceratops.

"Let's see you stop ME with some little orbs!" Beast Boy yelled.

So the Midnight Marauder did, firing one right into Beast Boy's left eye. With a yell, Beast Boy turned back to human form to do an instinctive move when an eye is hurt: grab at it.

With a quick jump and a brutal chop to the side of his neck, Beast Boy was down as well.

The Midnight Marauder turned and looked around, gazing at all the fallen and downed Titans. He smiled slightly, and then did a slight bow.

"Well, if that's all you have to say…"

And then the ground began to rumble. Under his mask, the Midnight Marauder arched an eyebrow.

And then it came around the corner, a tidal wave of mud, three stories high and filling the whole street, and on the top of it rode Terra on a rock surfboard, grateful in all the hours and hours of practice with Robert that let her pull a stunt like this.

"COWABUNGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she whooped as her mud tidal wave rolled towards the Midnight Marauder, carefully scooping up her fallen Titan allies so they weren't crushed or drowned.

Looking worried, the Midnight Marauder bent down, pressing something on his boots. There was a slight whirring noise, and then rockets ignited, sending the Midnight Marauder up, as Terra's wave drew close, but he was still going to go over it…

Terra gave him the finger.

And then a giant fist of muck flew out of the wave and slammed into the Midnight Marauder, sending him flying backwards, crashing through some windows seven stories up and out the other side, as he tumbled and landed in the middle of the street…on which there just happened to be a huge puddle of mud to break his fall.

"It's a dirty job, but man, do I love doing it sometimes." Terra said as her mud tidal wave shrank, flowing into the sewers. It revealed a very dirty street and cars, but at least the Titans were relatively clean. Who would have thought she would ever have that level of fine control?

"Great work Terra!" Beast Boy said. Terra smiled shyly.

"Come on Titans! We have to catch him before he switches forms again!"

And the Titans ran and flew, trying to get around the side of the building before…

FLASH!

"Oh no!" Starfire said. Nester had already transformed! If he keyed in the code again…

The Titans rounded the corner.

"TOO LATE HEROES!" Nester yelled as he saw the Titans, as his finger finished pressing the R and moved onto the O…

Robin hurled a Birdarang.

Too late.

FLASH! The giant blast of light seemed to knock the Birdarang away, as Nester's new form appeared in silhouette.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha…this is finally your end Titans…" Nester laughed. Robin's heart sank. Nester had hit the jackpot. They were all…

"I AM…" Nester declared as he was revealed.

In a stubby form with a green shell on his back and a green painted face.

"…The Human Turtle?" he said.

A pause. And then all the Titans grinned wickedly.

"Hey wait! No fair! I need something better!" Nester protested.

The Titans charged.

"YIKES!" Nester yelped, and then his arms, legs, and head disappeared into his shell. Strangely, the shell didn't fall to the ground, but levitated in place. Guess that came with the powers.

Unfortunately, Nester had withdrawn the HERO Device into the shell with him. But this was a problem Robin knew how to handle, as he reached into his belt and withdrew a smoke bomb. As the other Titans surrounded the floating shell, Robin threw it into the head hole.

It exploded.

"ACK! BLARGH!" Nester hacked as his head popped back out. The last thing he saw was Robin's green-clad fist.

"Dude, weak."

The floating shell spun around seven times before it hit the ground. Nester's limbs and head popped out again, limp and lifeless. He was done.

"Lucky us. Before he hit the jackpot, he got the booby prize." Gauntlet said as the Titans gathered around. With a dull clatter, the HERO Device rolled from Nester's right hand. A second later that hand was suddenly encased in black energy as Raven levitated his hand and pressed the buttons, hoping that it would work.

It did, as with one final flash (abet with no Vegeta present, heh heh), Nester Weames was rendered back to normal. The Titans all let out a relieved sigh.

"And so ends the supervillian career of…hey, who is this guy anyway?" Beast Boy asked.

"Who cares?" Robin said.

Nester moaned.

With the Gauntlet energy, Rob scooped up the HERO Device as Robin got out some handcuffs and cuffed Nester. Rob turned it over in his hands.

"Hey…!" he said, and with that word his Gauntlet retracted, going from covering his whole right arm to being a small ring on his finger. With the Gauntlet technically "turned off", Rob began pressing the buttons.

Raven's eyes widened.

"ROB DON'T…!"

Another bright flash and sizzling noise, and Robert Candide suddenly started spasming as if he was having an epileptic fit. The HERO Device flew from his hand in a violent jerk, and as Robin and Raven watched in horror, the device, almost in slow motion flew through the air…

And fell down in the perfect angle to fall through a drainage ditch, disappearing into the sewers.

"ARGH!" Robin yelled, charging and leaping through the air to try and grab it, but he got nothing BUT air even as he jammed his arm into the drainage ditch as far as it would go. Raven vanished into the shadows as she teleported into the sewers below to look, and Terra and Beast Boy eventually joined her, but all their search efforts were for naught.

The device was gone.

* * *

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT! AGAIN!" Raven yelled at Rob. By now the police had arrived and were escorting Nester to a police car. Robin, filling in the head officer in on what exactly happened. Which the officer looked to be having a hard time believing. Robin sighed. Without the device, having this teenage boy (his name was Nester Weames, according to his ID) charged was going to be hard, much less convicted.

But, then again, without the HERO Device, what could he do?

Besides tap the great potential of his own mind and marrying it to his dreams and obsessions…but Robin digressed.

"I thought it would work that time, maybe increase my powers. I had to give it a try." Rob replied calmly, as if he was telling Raven the temperature.

"After what it did LAST time? My GOD Rob, I'm pretty sure you have a brain in your head but it's times like these I really wonder!" Raven growled.

"Hey, come on Rae! We won! We beat the bad guy, he didn't get the jackpot, all is good! Don't bitch just because Savior's not here to do it!" Terra said, sticking up for her teacher (which was ironic, considering that due to the various comings and goings, Terra hadn't even MET Noel yet). Raven's eyes narrowed.

"Terra, you think it's THAT simple? We LOST it. That device is dangerous! It doesn't have a conscience, a will of its own, anything to control the incredible power it randomly gives out! By losing that device, Rob could have caused it to fall into the hands of someone even worse! We could wake up tomorrow and find hell has come to the surface of the Earth!"

"And maybe we won't." Rob said, and yawned. "Well, we won, and I'm craving ice cream. Say Terra, mind giving me a lift back to the Tower?"

"Certainly, I could go for some Heavenly Hash myself, get the taste of seawater out of my mouth." Terra said. A few seconds later, they were heading back to the Tower on one of Terra's rock platforms.

"Titans…!"

Raven's eyebrow arched, and she saw that Nester was weakly waving a fist at them, or doing as best he could while handcuffed. But he didn't seem angry. Rather he seemed…content. As if, in some way, he found this whole thing…comforting.

Things going the way they should.

"It ain't over! I will have my revenge…I will beat you Titans…and the world will know my name…will win…next time…" Nester said as he was put in the police car. A few minutes later, the Titans were left alone.

"Well, all in all, he wasn't too bad a guy." Beast Boy said.

"Yes, he did not harm anyone, in the end, except us. As good a villain that one can have, I suppose." Starfire said.

"And speaking of good badness…" Raven said. Andrew Benjamin was approaching the Titans.

"I guess you won." He said.

"Yep." Robin said.

"Well then…good. Well, keep on protecting the city Titans. I won't be getting in your way anymore…sorry I caused that bad guy to get away…" Andrew said.

"Hey." Beast Boy said. "All things aside, thanks for trying."

Andrew smiled a bit.

"Yes, and Andrew? Don't go home and try to arrange being bit by a radioactive chipmunk tomorrow. If you really want to be a hero, find your own way. Life can be funny sometimes." Robin said.

"Yes, I suppose. Well, then, goodbye."

"Bye bye." The remaining Titans said as Andrew walked down the sidewalk.

"You know, despite what I said, I think he'll go far." Robin said.

"Preferably far away from us." Raven said. All the other Titans glared at her. "What?"

* * *

"Rob? We're home! Hello? Did you eat all the ice cream?" Gar Logan said as he and the other Titans headed into the living room.

"He's gone." Came a sudden voice, and then Cyborg came out of the kitchen.

"Victor! You're back!" Kory said happily, and flew over to gave Cyborg one of her usually bone crushing hugs, which Cyborg handled a lot better then anyone else due to his mechanical body.

"Good to have you back Cy. You staying?" Gar said.

"Yeah. I've made my peace with what happened, and I'm ready to go back to defending others and ensuring that this kind of stuff doesn't happen again, in this city or elsewhere." Victor said.

"Well, welcome back Victor." Tim said.

"Indeed. We missed you." Raven said. Everyone looked at her wryly. "That includes me too. Really."

"So, where has Rob gone?" Kory asked.

"I came home when he and Tara were pigging out on ice cream. Not two minutes later, Rob got an urgent phone call; I think it was from his hometown. He left immediately, and he asked Tara to come with him, something about her being a great help. They left a minute later. That was about seventeen minutes ago. Rob said that he wasn't sure when he'd be back and if he doesn't come back…"

"Avenge his death." Tim, Gar, and Raven said in exasperation.

"So, did I miss anything?" Victor asked.

"We fought six new enemies." Gar said. Victor looked a tad bit alarmed.

"SIX? Man, who did YOU tick off recently?"

"Well, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. You see…"

* * *

Near Jump City was a place called Edge City, and as it's named implied, it wasn't as nice a place as Jump City was.

Such as this scene might demonstrate. The exact situation was a block or two of run-down apartment buildings on the edge of town. The block was owned by a corrupt and absentee landlord who had recently decided to sell the buildings. The buildings were then set to be torn down for some construction project whose nature was still vague and stood a good chance of falling through. All the same, the landlord, a oh so great piece of humanity known as Kevin Malloy, had sold the buildings and ordered all the residents to get out. The residents had refused, trying to keep from being thrown out of their homes by legal means. Never one to play by the rules, Kevin had called in some favors and given away some cash and at the moment several squadrons of police were trying to force the residents out, using tear gas, rubber bullets, and simple brutality.

And one of the victims of their cruel, heartless campaign was 14 year old George Keane, who had been separated from his mother and sisters in the riot and had tried to help out one of the ringleaders of the resistance to be thrown out, Shane Sellers, who was being savagely beaten by a group of six police officers. His efforts had rewarded him with his own beating, which he had managed to escape by running away and then falling down into a drainage ditch. Hurt, bleeding, and soaked, he tried to get up via the open sewer pipe, wondering what he and his family had ever done to deserve this. They had never hurt anyone. Why were they being hurt? Why were the bad guys winning? Why…

And then it fell out of the drainage ditch and landed on his foot. Stunned by the sudden weight, George looked down.

The water was starting to carry it away, but George picked it up first. He looked at in confusion and some wonder, the lovely golden disc with the four letters. Four letters…only four? Strange, they spelled out a word…

No…not letters. Buttons. Slowly, in the curiosity that Aladdin probably had when he had rubbed the lamp, or perhaps Pandora when she had opened her box, George brought his hand up and began to press the buttons.

H…E...R...


	22. Interlude: Generation Next

Chapter 24: Generation Next

Or

(W)Hole In The Head

Writer's Note: My brother helped with this, so please forgive the naughtier then usual word used later in this chapter. It won't be a common one, but it fit the situation. Anyway, on we go.

* * *

And from Jump City we go to another city: New York City to be exact. A pretty nice place to visit, but you might not want to live there. For a variety of reasons

For the exact reasons, we must pan into the city. And the roughly fifteen square blocks that have been completely leveled. Buildings that haven't collapsed are rickety, some with a hole or more going through them. The roads are cracked, buckled, filled with craters and smashed cars and trucks. Water sprays from broken fire hydrants, and downed electrical wires (the electricity thankfully shut off) lay like dead snakes. A few fires burn, but they are mostly small.

Apparently, cruel fate wasn't content with 9/11.

Through this wreckage walks Noel Collins.

Noel is a mess. He has lost his jacket somewhere, one of his pant legs has been torn off at the knee, and his T-Shirt hangs on him in rags. His body is covered with mud and blood from several severe cuts, all coated with a fine veneer of gray dust. He walks hesitatingly, as if he is somewhat disoriented. He isn't. Noel has suffered some injuries, but a concussion is not one of them. Thanks to the Shimmer, not the luck he'd had in battle.

The area is eerily silent, but that doesn't seem to be bothering Noel, as he walks on, slowly to avoid stumbling, guiding himself if he happens to walk near a wall or a piece of stable wreckage. What is he hunting for? Survivors? Fallen allies? The sense lacking in this devastation?

No, as he comes to a small hole, as the Shimmer slides out of his palm and picks it up.

He just wanted to find his jacket.

* * *

Though it may irritate you, we must move away for a second, back to the Titan Tower, about a thousand miles away. What the other Titans are doing, we don't know. What we see now is Raven, calmly meditating on top of the Tower, with her legs crossed and her mind clear.

So she is in a prime state to feel it, as she opens her eyes. It isn't a bad or dangerous sensation that catches her attention, just a strange one.

Then a raven swoops down and lands on the edge of the Tower.

Raven arches an eyebrow. She puts her feet down, prepares herself, and then walks over to the raven. She is pretty sure she is not in danger, but better to be safe then sorry. This raven had a small spell cast on it to make sure it got her attention.

The raven stood there calmly, as Raven walked up to it. It had a small piece of paper rolled in a tube and tied to its neck. Raven reached down, and the raven did not move as she slowly untied the message from its neck. Once it was off, the raven flapped its wings and took off again. Raven ignored it, as she rolled open the piece of paper.

It just said two words.

Come,

Blood.

Raven blinked, and thought it over. Unless she missed her guess, Jason Blood wanted to see her. But why?

Apparently it was just her, otherwise he would have just called the Titans through more "official" channels. And while it didn't seem urgent, he certainly had made it clear he wanted to speak to her.

Raven pulled her hood up, and then she sank into the shadows by her feet. She knew where to go.

* * *

Noel, now walking in a bit more of an assured style, made his way through more wrecked streets.

Now, you're probably wondering what happened. Well, don't worry, it will be explained.

New York City was not just the place that Noel had received his powers. It also happened to be the headquarters of the Justice Society. While the Justice LEAGUE was now the world's most renowned super team, the Justice Society had actually come first. And it was still quite a team. Currently led by Micheal Holt, aka Mr. Terrific (his name may have been goofy, but nothing was goofy about his abilities or gadgets), the team currently consisted of the superheroes Wildcat, Dr. Mid-Nite, Hourman, Power Girl, Stargirl, and the original Flash and Green Lantern.

In the course of their journeys, Noel had discovered that Katherine and Naomi's mother had not been all she had seemed. Indeed, it appeared that their power did not derive from their father, but their mother, who had been a short-lived superhero who called herself Barbeque. Still, despite her short-lived career, she had had a few relationships with men "of the coloured cloth". With that data, Noel had traced their possible father to a member of the Justice Society. But no sooner had Noel shown up, said hello, explained this theory, and asked for blood samples then disaster had struck.

That disaster had been one of the strongest, most vicious forces that the universe possessed: Doomsday. The alien creature was most well known for his hand in Superman's "death", a creature possessing such incredible might and resilience he had actually killed the Man of Steel in combat (kinda, sorta. It was complicated). Doomsday had caused more trouble later, and in the process revealed the key to his insane might: he evolved from whatever had defeated him. And due to his origin, he had evolved tens of thousands of times from his original creation. Nothing in the universe could truly be said to be totally invincible, but if one wanted to measure how close some got to perfect invincibility, Doomsday would be mere millimeters away from the absolute.

Fortunately, his evolution could also work a bit against him. When Doomsday had first appeared, in the original gigantic battle that had led to Superman's death, and in later battles as well, he had been a mindless force of annihilation, the desire to destroy in a nigh-unstoppable package. But after several battles, Doomsday had evolved a new potent weapon: intelligence. This reworked Doomsday, known to some as Doomsday Rex, might seem to be utterly unbeatable: such staggering strength, endurance, AND brains?

Unfortunately, the intelligence came at a cost, as Doomsday could now grasp certain things that just didn't register when he was totally mindless. Like pain. Using this new weakness, Superman had, during the worldwide villain attack masterminded by the Joker known as "The Last Laugh", finally avenged his "death" by defeating Doomsday in single combat. And then the monstrous alien had disappeared.

Until now.

His re-appearance was tied to the same man who had led to his last release on earth: The Joker. Though Noel and the Justice Society didn't know it, Doomsday, after being beaten by Superman, had been given to Apokolis by then-President Luthor as a "political favor", if you will. Darkseid, the terrible and mighty lord of the planet Apokolis, had wanted to train Doomsday for some unknown purpose. And so Doomsday had stayed there, until the Joker, who had managed to get his hands on a Boom Tube somehow (The Joker, perhaps granted favors by the forces of chaos that had long ago consumed his mind, seemed to come into a lot of things that really shouldn't be in the hands of someone like him), had warped him straight into Justice Society headquarters.

Why? Simple. Joker had wanted to warp Doomsday to the Watchtower, the headquarters for the Justice LEAGUE, in the hopes that Batman would get killed in the battle that would result. But the Joker's mind, a vicious mass of turmoil and mayhem, had mixed up the teams and had warped Doomsday to the Justice Society headquarters instead. Joker had shrugged, said "Oops", and settled back to watch the bedlam that had resulted.

And bedlam it had been, as Doomsday had done what he had done best, cause pandemonium, and the Justice Society, aided by Noel and, though he tried to keep them away from the battle, Katherine and Naomi, tried to stop him.

And even so, despite all the power that the Justice Society had, they were still overmatched by the nigh-unstoppable Doomsday. What had saved them was a stroke of luck, as passing by, heading home from another mission, was a more recently formed team: The Outsiders. Led by Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson (the first Robin), the team consisted of Arsenal, who had once been known as Green Arrow's teenage sidekick Speedy, and Metamorpho, a veteran superhero (although not the ORIGINAL Metamorpho, Rex Mason, but rather a clone of his. It was complicated, and the clone was considering changing his name to avoid confusion, maybe to something like Shift). Also on the team were Jade, a Green Lantern, Thunder, the daughter of the great black superhero Black Lightning, Grace, a superstrong female bouncer with an attitude, and Indigo, a female robot from the future.

Together, this group of 18 metahumans, vigilantes, and creations had pooled their powers and resources and, in a gigantic battle, defeated Doomsday. And thanks to Jay Garrick, or the first Flash (Flash I for now), and the Green Lantern rings of Alan Scott, the First Green Lantern (Green Lantern I) and Jade (who could be called Green Lantern V and ½ ), hardly any civilians had been injured, and no one had been killed. Though a chunk of New York City's estate wouldn't be livable in for some time. But cities could be rebuilt.

It had been as great a battle as the Final Night, and though Noel hadn't contributed much to it, he still felt very satisfied.

Now he finally came to people, a huge crush of police, fire, and rescue vehicles, who were mostly looking over the superheroes, and a contingent from STAR Labs, who were at the moment lifting Doomsday's unconscious body, backed up by the finally arrived Justice League, who had been busy with other matters when the Joker had made his error, but were here now. Noel would feel proud to be in such distinguished company, except he was too tired and sore to appreciate it.

A hand landed on his shoulder. Noel started a bit, and then realized it was just Nightwing, grinning at him.

"Thanks for your help…Noel, was it?" Nightwing said, keeping Noel's name quiet. Noel nodded. "Tim told me about you, and after this, I can definitely say he made a good choice."

"Just doing what I can." Noel said, as Doomsday was sealed up in super high tech mega turbo restraints. Even THOSE were doubtful to hold him. _It's better then the alternative._ He added mentally, in regards to Nightwing's comment.

"So what were you doing here anyway?" Nightwing was asking.

"Finishing up a road trip." Noel said, as his eyes fell on Katherine and Naomi, who were finally hugging their long lost father: Ted Grant, aka Wildcat, who had been saved from death in the battle by a furious flame attack from his daughters. And that was before Dr. Mid-nite had gotten the DNA results from his Justice Society Headquarters after the fight. Sometimes, you just knew.

Noel drew in a breath and let it out, and then walked off, not saying goodbye. It would be better to just head home. Partially to avoid pain, and partially to make sure he didn't get tricked into signing another contract.

He passed by Superman, who smiled and gave him a wave.

"I see you're still around. Good work Savior." He said.

"I suppose, but next time Supes, do us a favor. Handle Doomsday yourself. It's REALLY not a notch I would have preferred on my belt." Noel replied. Superman just smirked. Even a usual expression of derision and mockery, as a smirk usually was, looked noble on him.

"I can see that. You look half-"

* * *

"Dead?" Raven said, stunned.

Jason Blood nodded. He was dressed in a loose red robe, tied tightly at the waist, and was sipping from a wine glass. He had just gotten back from his own mission, involving alternate hell dimensions and evil magicks and other stuff that it really wasn't good for mere mortals to dwell on. But at the tail end of his journey, he had come across a very interesting piece of information.

"Yes. The fledgeling had a small piece of what was definitely Trigon's power. Which he stupidly tried to use on Etrigan. I managed to get the old bastard to extract some info before he crushed the stupid imp's head." Blood said.

Raven took a step back, trying to digest the information. After Noel had banished her father with the Fang, she had known he had been badly hurt, and there was a possibility that that would prevent his return. But in her heart of hearts, she had always thought that was folly. Someday, her father would return, and he would again try to ruin her life, and possibly succeed.

But not any more. The great demon lord Trigon was dead. Having returned to his prison hurt and weakened, he had been caught up in a power struggle with several other powerful evil forces, and ultimately they had destroyed him, stripping him of his might and abilities. Several lessers had fought over the scraps that his conqueror's had left behind, and it was from them that Etrigan had learned of Trigon's fate.

Now, then again, it was possible this information was garbled or possibly even false, but there was one critical argument: Trigon would have never let any weakling like the one Etrigan had squashed possess even an iota of his power. And it was Trigon's power. The only way something like that imp could have gotten it was if it really had sucked the power off his corpse.

Ding dong, the evil demon lord was dead.

And that reality floored Raven.

After Trigon's defeat, her emotion-linked powers had finally been freed up, allowing her to admit her feelings for Noel. But she had always expected, and feared, that some day she would kiss him and something would explode, the signal that her father was trying to break into this reality again, turning her life upside down and inside out.

Not any more. Trigon was dead. Her life was hers, until the day she died.

"You are happy with this?" Blood asked.

"I will be once I can believe it." Raven said.

"I would offer to verify the information for you, but stepping into the Netherverse is not something to be done on a whim."

"I understand…I just…" Raven said, having to put a hand out. She rather expected this was similar, abet on an opposite emotional scale, to how people reacted when a loved one had unexpectedly died. But while they would be sad…

Her life was hers. After so many years fighting her father's influence, her demonic birthright always threatening any possible happiness…

Trigon was dead.

"…Thank you Jason."

"You're welcome child. Do you wish to know anything else?" Blood asked, merely as a courtesy to a fellow sorcerer.

"No…no that's enough…I'll be going now…" Raven said, still in a daze. She wrapped her cloak around herself and then disappeared into the shadows.

"Fare thee well, child." Blood said, and left the room.

* * *

Noel really had no idea what to do. With his part of the contract delivered, he was free to go home. Except his car (Robin's actually) had been destroyed in the fight (sorry Tim). And he really didn't want to call Raven to teleport all the way here, it was a waste of energy. He'd need to find another way home.

And then, as he was pondering this problem, he walked around a van and saw him.

In full body restraints and with eight men surrounding him, guns all aimed at his head, the Joker still came off as a malignant force, a tidal wave of mischief and mayhem.

The Clown Prince of Crime. The Jack of Counted Sorrows. The Ace of Knaves. For all the villains in this world that possessed great power and had done terrible deeds, to many the Joker was considered the most evil person on the face of the planet. There were so many rumors about his deeds, crimes, frenzies, and massacres that some wondered if all of them were really true and the rumor part was a cover to keep people from realizing the full extent of his evil. It was said, firsthand and not the ones who had died through goons, schemes, and other outside factors, the Joker had murdered more then 1,000 people. His insanity was so widespread and legendary, the discord within his brain so overpowering, that he had several instances of the shrinks treating him being destroyed instead (The most famous case was Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who had become the Joker's sometime partner, lover, and causer of chaos Harley Quinn, but another had simply gone insane without putting on any clown makeup, and another had handled his "treatment" of the Joker by joining a monastery). Not bad for a guy whose only powers were a fair grasp of chemical science, some firearm and hand-to-hand combat knowledge, and the bottomless pit of madness that was his brain.

That certain something drew Noel to the Joker, despite the warnings of the police officers that they would shoot. Noel ignored them. He had to see.

The Joker was studying the sky when Noel approached, perhaps pondering how Batman had gotten the drop on him (perhaps forgetting that he had done it 10,000 times before), and he only looked down when the teenager was right in front of him. There was a very brief flick of his eyes, perhaps indicating if he was trying to remember if he had seen Noel before, and finding nothing, he instead broke into a big grin, as happy as any child with a piece of candy.

"Hi!"

Noel slugged him in the gut as hard as he could.

It was true. From that brief glimpse, Noel had seen a pit in the Joker's eyes that extended so deep and so far down that it made Jack and the Lord look like choirboys.

Those people were right. This white-faced man, now leaning over and groaning, was the greatest evil on the face of this planet.

Noel was glad there was a Batman. He didn't think the Titans could handle something like this on a regular basis.

Joker looked up. He was still smiling, but his expression was now showing a crafty, terrifying knowledge, as if he was peering into Noel's mind and seeing exactly what he was thinking. He chuckled.

"Whatever helps you sleep, kid."

Noel drew back his fist to drive a few of this…THING'S teeth down its throat.

A black-gloved hand caught his arm.

"No. Enough."

Noel glanced back to look at Batman, who looked back at Noel with the emotionless slits he called eyes. Noel and he stared at each other for a second, and then Noel relaxed and removed his hand from Batman's arm.

And the Joker burst out laughing.

"HA HA! HA HA HA HA! HA HA HA HA HA HA! HA! HAA HA HA…!"

Batman's fist slammed into the Joker's face, knocking him into a blissfully quiet unconsciousness.

"Main nemesis privileges?" Noel enquired.

"You might say that." Batman replied. He leaned down and picked up the back of the Joker's restraints, waving the police away. "Savior, I heard you don't have a way back to your home base. I'll be delivering the Joker to Arkham, and after your help in containing Doomsday, I suppose I can offer you a lift."

"Ohhh, can I fiddle with the radio and press any buttons that won't blow the plane up?" Noel said. The dry, sarcastic tone bombed none the less, as Batman just glared at Noel. Noel shrank back. _My god, sometimes I think this man is crazier then those he locks up._

"Sorry. Certainly. And I promise no more jokes."

"You do that." Batman said, and turned, carrying Joker like a package. Noel followed at his heel.

* * *

"You will? Ok then. Thank you sir." Robin said. He had just gotten a message from Batman that he was bringing Noel home.

"Leave this com line open. I've heard some rumors floating around the underworld that I might require your aid with." Batman said, and logged out.

"Man, he really needs a few personality implants." Beast Boy said on the couch.

"That's just him. Always been that way, will always be that way." Robin said. "Good news everyone. Noel finally found Katherine and Naomi's father, and now he can finally come home."

"Unless his long lost twin shows up, begging for Noel's help to stop the evil Mushroom people from Planet Zazoog." Beast Boy said.

"A month ago I would have laughed at that." Cyborg said.

"Friend Noel is coming home? JOY!" Starfire said, floating in. "This is a happy coincidence! I was doing the boring job of putting the records in order, and I found something interesting!"

"What?" Robin asked. Starfire told him.

"Dude, why didn't he mention that?" Beast Boy said.

"It's probably something he didn't want you knowing." Raven said, walking into the room. Her tone wasn't as dry and put-downish as usual though, and to the Titans' great surprise she actually looked…happy.

"Hey, who are you, and what have you done with Raven?" Beast Boy quipped. A second later he found himself floating upside down, looking at his bemused teammates.

"I have my own news." Raven said.

* * *

Twenty seconds after Batman finished his report, his radio crackled to life.

"What." He answered.

"Batman, I'm just wondering, would it be quicker to drop the Joker off first?"

"Excuse me?"

"What's closer, Jump City or Arkham Asylum?"

"…Arkham. But it would be best if I took you home first."

"No, actually, I think it would be best if Joker was locked up as quickly as possible. I think you should go to Arkham first."

"…There'll be a lengthy wait."

"That's ok."

"It's also a very dangerous place. You could get killed. You aren't planning on wandering around are you? If you are I'll eject you from the plane right now and you can walk home."

"No Batman. I have no intention of wandering around Arkham Asylum."

"…Very well. We'll go their first. But don't complain if you grow bored, and I mean it, DON'T go wandering off."

Oh, Batman didn't have to worry about Noel wandering around.

You see, he didn't have to. There was someone very specific he wanted to see.

* * *

"Twin happy events! Raven is free from the curse of her evil father, and it…"

"Kory, may I make a suggestion?" Raven said.

"Yes?"

"Celebration would be lost on me, and Noel, well, he's not really a party guy. So why don't you go and do whatever you and the guys would do for us, and we'll just celebrate in our own way."

"But Raven…!"

"She's right Star. Her father's death is pretty momentous. I think Raven would prefer to quietly digest what this means instead of running around the clubs." Robin said.

"Besides, the party's always better when we don't have someone constantly wondering why we're doing it!" Beast Boy said. Raven gave him a mild telekinetic slap on the back of his head. "Ow!"

"Well Rae, if you wanna just spend some quiet time, that's fine, but any excuse to party is good for us!" Cyborg said.

"Just as long as no one tries to make us play Pin The Tail On The Donkey." Starfire said.

"Yeah, I'm STILL trying to forget that." Beast Boy said, rubbing his rear.

Raven had left by now, heading down the hallway. She had lied a bit, but it would be best if her friends just left to raise hell and have a good time and not realize it.

She had her celebratory plans.

* * *

Arkham Asylum.

Built by Dr. Jeremiah Arkham in the mid 19th century, the asylum had a long and bloody history (the doctor was also one of the first inmates) even before Batman had arrived, bringing with him the many mutants and psychotic freaks that had given the place it's modern infamy. The security of the place was state of the art and top-notch, kept running by its head doctor, a descent of the original Jeremiah Arkham (who also shared the founder's name), and head of security Aaron Cash. Even then, many of the lunatics found ways out, to kill and destroy, before being caught again and brought back here.

In this place, there was a wide hallway, at the end of which was a heavily reinforced door. The door buzzed, and then opened, revealing Savior.

Batman had taken the Joker into Arkham and left Noel in a waiting room, saying that he would be a while: he wanted to personally supervise the Joker's re-insertion into a padded cell. And with that he left Noel, his warning not repeated but still there: don't wander around.

Noel hadn't. Instead he had talked, and finagled, and bullshitted, and finally, after signing a ton of paperwork absolving everyone except God of any responsibility, got what he wanted: an interview.

But to get to the interview room, he had to walk down this hallway. The guards had escorted him this far, but they told him that unless the worst happened, they weren't going into that hallway.

There was a white line painted up the hallway: the guards told him to stay on it and not deviate an inch. They were probably being overcautious. Probably.

So Noel stepped into the hallway.

He could immediately see why the guards hadn't followed. The hallway was a normal one…and yet it wasn't. The people in it, all lunatics and madmen, had polluted the place with their essence. It seemed to bore at Noel's head, trying to get into his brain and devour the sweet sanity within.

Noel slowly walked down the hallway, looking at the names on the doors and trying to ignore the giggles, shrieks, growls, and other various noises coming from the cells. The place was a Who's Who of lunatics, an Ivy League of insanity, a Harvard of madmen.

Zeus, Maximillion. _Maxie Zeus._

Wesker, Albert. _The Ventriloquist._

Tetch, Jervis. _The Mad Hatter._

Day, Julian. _The Calendar Man._

Jones, Waylon. _Killer Croc._

Zsasz, Victor. _Mr. Zsasz._

Sionis, Roman. _Black Mask._

Fries, Victor. _Mr. Freeze._

Crane, Jonathan. _The Scarecrow._

A slight ringing noise caught Noel's ear as he walked past the next cell on his right, and then with a loud curse a coin suddenly rolled out from under the door. Noel glanced at the name.

Dent, Harvey.

_Two-Face._

Noel pondered it for a second, hearing the loud, vicious noises inside the cell, and then scooped the coin up with a Shimmer strand and brought it up to the barred window.

A window that two arms shot from, not able to make out the general shape of the Shimmer, grabbing the white energy and trying to strangle it. You may as well have tried to strangle sand, as the energy shot through Harvey Dent's fingers and wrapped around his head, slamming it into the bars. Noel grimaced at Dent's horrifically burned face, split perfectly down the middle. He dropped the coin at Harvey's feet.

"Don't make me come in there and separate the two of you." Noel said, and pushed Harvey away, walking on. That had been a very foolish move, but Noel couldn't resist.

The next cell had small vines creeping out of its bars, and as Noel passed by it, a face came to the window. A woman, with red hair and impossible beauty. And green skin.

Pamela Isley. _Poison Ivy._

"Come closer…" she purred.

"Sorry, not my type. I prefer brunettes." Noel said, and walked on. He wasn't getting anywhere near Isley: her body was a walking biological weapon, oozing with a myriad of toxins from which only she was immune. She didn't just have her name because of her love of plants.

The next cell also had a face at the window.

Nigma, Edward. _The Riddler._

Nigma looked over Noel for a second.

"When is a certain teenage superhero like a damaged piece of rope?" he asked.

Noel locked eyes with him.

"Oh, I don't know. When he's afraid? A-frayed?"

Nigma looked annoyed, and Noel walked on. He didn't pay any mind to any more of the doors, as he approached the door at the end of the hall. It buzzed, and Noel left the Hallways of Madness. And good riddance. His kind didn't belong there.

The room was simple: a small table with two chairs, two doors, and a mirror that was undoubtedly two-way. Noel remained standing, waiting.

The other door opened, and three guards, all heavily armed, brought him in. Noel could guess there were a few others outside. The prisoner was chained at the wrists and ankles. His red hair had dulled a bit, and his drab gray uniform was nowhere near as cool as his previous outfit, but there was no doubting who this was.

Jack Djinn. _Asphyxiation._

For a moment, it looked like Jack was going to explode when he saw Noel, a brief, violent jolt of electricity running through his body. But he calmed, and his eyes assumed a blank, dull look, though a tiny bit of rage still seethed behind it. One of the guards prodded him with his gun, and Jack stepped forward, one of the guards pulling the chair out for him, as Jack no longer had the hands to do such a task. He sat down, crossed his stumps at his chin, where his hands might have clasped if he had them, and kept his baleful eyes on Noel.

"Hello Jack." Noel said, pulling out his own chair and sitting down. "I came to talk."

Jack didn't answer.

"I've been doing some thinking lately…about you and I, and our own special…relationship…we're going to kill each other, aren't we?"

Jack again didn't answer. Maybe that was for the best. After seeing what the Joker had done, all the damage and risk, all for the sake of getting Batman, his archenemy, Noel had done his own thinking of his own distorted image, the yang to his ying. And no matter what happened, Noel realized he had to do something. Which is why he had asked Batman to go to Arkham first.

"Who knows the exact fate? Perhaps I will be forced to kill you. Maybe you will live out what you probably dream of constantly and kill me. Maybe we'll die in each other's arms. But no matter the path, it ends in death. I was just wondering…does it really have to be this way?"

Again, no answer.

"I'm a human being Jack, and I think, somewhere in there, you are too. And while so many of us give in to our weaknesses and flaws…it is not that that defines us, but triumphing over them. So, before anything else, I decided I had to come here and at least TRY to work this out in a way that wouldn't result in death. Perhaps wishful thinking, but if good men do nothing, that is evil enough."

Still, no answer.

"I know you probably don't want to hear any of this. I get the sense that you're but an inch away from leaping over that table and trying to kill me. But one thing I must say Jack. I can live without you. If you died, of fair means or foul, or were cured and released, I could stand that. But without me, what defines your life? Could you just go back to strangling innocent women? I don't think so. It just won't taste so sweet any more. Empty calories. I think with me gone, any reason for you to go will vanish too. That's the crux of relationships like these, Jack. They each swing the same way, but they take different arcs."

Continued silence.

"Look. It doesn't have to be like this. You could be helped by these people. You could see that the life you reveled in isn't right or fulfilling. I believe you can be helped, Jack. I believe that you can be cured. Maybe I'm totally wrong. Maybe you're a hopeless cause. Maybe our path is already set. But before we walk it, I just wanted to know that I came here, as a man, and spoke to you as a fellow, before it came to death. Because it will end in death, Jack. Can you live with that?"

Jack slowly inhaled through his nose, and then he snorted.

"You really are stupid, kid." Jack said. "You? Fuck no. I will get out of here, and when I do…I won't be killing you. That's too good for you, thief. No, I'm going to find your pretty black birdie. And I'm going to rip her throat open and drink her blood after I stick my hand up her and rip her guts out through her cunt."

Silence, as the two looked at each other. Jack gave Noel a malicious grin, and then licked his lips. Noel slowly stood up and leaned over.

"So be it. I'll know I tried. And Jack? If you want Raven, you'll get her over my dead body. And if that happens, you may not find another victim but a destroyer. The female of the species is more deadly then the male, and all that. You should know that well. Don't you…mamma's boy?"

Jack leapt out of the chair with a scream, only to be smashed by Noel's Shimmer attack, sending him flying across the room and against the wall. Having seen what Jack could do, the guards reacted immediately with brutal force, pouncing on him and pounding him with their clubs. Jack screamed, cursed, and thrashed.

"Get him out of here." Noel said, wiping Jack's spittle from his face. This had been a waste of time. He'd been a fool to think that Jack had a shred of humanity left in him. He wasn't just sick. He was someone who embraced his own deviance and reveled in it.

"SAME PLACE THIEF!" Jack screamed, as Noel turned to leave. He paused, as the guards tried to drag Jack back to his cell. "YOU THINK YOURSELF ABOVE IT ALL! WE ALL END UP IN THE SAME PLACE! WE JUST TAKE DIFFERENT ROUTES! AND YOURS WILL END SOON, AND YOU'LL SEE, THIEF! YOU'LL BE IN THE SAME PLACE AS ME! THE **_SAME!!!!!!!!!!!"_**

The door slammed shut, and the room was quiet.

"Sorry about all this." Noel said to the mirror. He didn't know if anyone was behind it, but he said it all the same.

Batman was waiting at the other end of the Hallways of Madness. The route was quiet this time, as the predators seemed to be contemplating their superior. Noel walked up to him and stopped. Batman didn't look angry, but rather, just blank.

"It's futile, isn't it?" Noel said quietly.

"In this place, redemption fled long ago." Batman replied.

"Yes…I suppose it did." Noel said. "Let's get out of here before it consumes us."

A loud laughing noise came at the end of the hallway. The Joker was back home, and he had overheard.

"You think it hasn't?" He laughed, and howled, sounding not like a man or an animal but like something…else. And with that the whole hallway exploded in the same alien sound, as all the inmates laughed and shrieked and gibbered and mocked the normal world.

If he hadn't moved aside to let Noel through, Noel probably would have shoved Batman aside and run for it.

* * *

Night had fallen by the time that Batman had made the long trip to Jump City. It had been quiet, void of conversation, which is what Noel needed in the end. And Batman knew it.

Finally they came back to the T-Tower. Home. Batman opened the separate cockpit that Noel was in, and Noel just jumped out, not waving goodbye. It would have been lost on Batman, as he turned and blasted the jet back to his city.

Noel used the Shimmer to make a safe landing, and headed into the Tower. He wondered what he was going to tell Tim about his car.

The Tower was quiet. WAY too quiet for Noel's taste, especially after Rob had become a member: there was always SOME noise. But a quick check with one of the nearby monitors showed that there hadn't been a security breach. Apparently no one was home.

Which was probably best, considering what day it was. Noel figured he would just sit down and doze off in front of the TV…

At least that was the plan before the shadow portal appeared under his foot as Noel was stepping forward. Suddenly finding the ground a lot less stable then it had been, Noel fell forward, vertigo kicking in as he quickly lost all sense of what was up and what was down.

It ended quickly, as Noel fell and flipped over, landing on his feet. His vision swam a bit, and then reality returned to normal. He stood up and looked around.

He was in Raven's room. Which wasn't a bad thing, but wasn't the most expected thing as well.

"Raven?" he said, turning around, trying to find the gothic lovely that he called girlfriend. This really wasn't like her.

"Noel."

And then she was there, appearing out of the shadows in front of him. RIGHT in front of him, which startled him a bit.

"You're finally home." She said. Noel was about to reply, except she kissed him. Noel figured he could talk later and returned it, enjoying the slight bitter taste on her lips that came from her tea. It went on for a bit, soft and gentle, before Raven broke it.

"Hello to you as well." Noel said. Raven smiled. It was an odd image: Raven rarely smiled, even for him. "Where are the others?"

"Oh, probably burning down some club while Tim tries to keep Gar and Victor from "sampling" any alcohol. I stayed behind to wait."

"Er…I see…when will they be back?"

"Not for a while…" Raven said, tracing her finger in a small circle on Noel's right collarbone. Noel felt an uncharacteristic flush permeate his face.

"Raven…uh…" and that was a far as Noel got when Raven kissed him again, longer this time.

"My father's dead." She finally said when she broke it. Noel arched an eyebrow.

"Trigon's dead?"

"Yes. You killed him Noel."

"Actually I just…wounded and banished him…I didn't…"

"Details. You killed him Noel. You accomplished something I thought no person ever would. You gave me a normal life."

"As normal as this life ever gets." Noel said, and then Raven put a finger to his lips.

"No more talking. You freed me. You gave me a life worth living." Raven said, drawing Noel forward and kissing him again, deeper, harder.

To Noel, the subtext was rapidly becoming text, as Raven gave him a gentle shove backwards. He sat down on her bed, and Raven reached up and unhooked the cloak at the neck. She'd had it drawn around her tightly, more so then usual.

And as it fell at her feet, Noel could see why. She wasn't wearing anything underneath.

The blush didn't return this time, rather a combination of realization, slight amazement, and under that, admiration, as he looked up past her body. Raven joined Noel on her bed.

"You want this?" Noel asked,

"Yes. More then anything." Raven said.

Noel blinked, and then reached up his right hand, placing it on her cheek, tracing his fingers along the side of her head and through her hair over her ear, and then he gently gripped the back of her head and brought her towards him, kissing her again, gently, then passionately. Raven shoved his jacket off and didn't even bother with his shirt: a quick telekinetic yank tore it off his frame. The rest quickly joined Raven's cloak on the floor.

* * *

Perhaps you would prefer the previous scene, but we must go elsewhere now, back to an old haunt, from a couple expressing their love to each other in the deepest way possible into the bowels of hatred and madness, as we return to Arkham, drift through its halls, and finally come to the special padded cell deep in the basement, where Jack Djinn, fully trussed up in the straightjacket, had been lying, mumbling for hours.

Until his eyes suddenly snap wide open.

Does he know? Is there some link between him and his enemy, a shared feeling due to their mirror abilities? Is it the link of their own hatred for each other that goes beyond their powers? Perhaps it is something else. Or maybe it is just an astounding coincidence, as Jack suddenly rears up, screaming, and starts thrashing about like an epileptic on speed.

His furious rage and mindless howling and bellowing is in stark contrast to the scene that he may somehow know about. There, the motions are careful, gentle, controlled: the two are still finding each other. But what they share is no less heated then the fury that has enveloped Jack Djinn, as he manages to get to his feet and charges into the walls, smashing and tumbling and rolling, all the while screaming his terrible anger.

In an almost stereo motion, he smashes his head into the door, splitting his forehead open, and even as his blood spills into his eyes, elsewhere a thin arm tenses in ecstasy and then, in an uncontrollable motion, hooks its nails into Noel's back and carves open a two inch swath, drawing blood as well. Neither notices: they have reached the peak.

So has Jack, and he falls down with them, although theirs is a far more enjoyable experience, as he lands on his side, hot blood leaking from his forehead, pooling around his cranium, running down his face. He chuckles now.

"Enjoy it mate. There are some things you'll never know that I do. Hell's coming mate, in more ways then one. And you're first."

And Jack chuckles into the night, his only light the moonlight from a high, barred window.

* * *

The same moonlight washes over the black satin sheets of Raven's bed, where Raven is trying to come down from one of the most exquisite experiences she has ever had. True, she hadn't had many. True, there had been some pain. But what wasn't true was her original thoughts, back in the dark ages when she was imprisoned by her father's influence that she wasn't missing out on anything when it came to sex. It was just masturbation with two people, right?

Wrong. Oh she had been wrong.

If Noel was a smoker, he'd be snapping open a lighter about now. But he wasn't, so he settled for rolling onto his side, looking down on his love, who rises and meets him with another soft kiss. Screw cigarettes: THAT was a good followup.

"Did you like that?" he asks softly.

"I think I touched heaven." Raven replied.

"Really? Man, I didn't think I was that good…" Noel chuckled, as he absently places his index and middle finger on Raven's flat stomach (she must work out in secret), tracing along her soft, pale skin, up between her breasts to her throat, pausing briefly on the vein, feeling her blood pump, her heart beat. He gives a slight smile, and then gives her one final kiss that lasts for nearly two minutes before they break.

"So, what do you want to do now, birthday boy?" Raven asked.

Noel smirked.

"So you found that out. Was that my present?"

"No…and yes…and I can give you more if you wish…" Raven said, her eyes dark with passion. She wouldn't mind feeling that way again.

"No…I am, how shall we say, satisfied for now. We have our lives to explore the flesh…let's save some for later, shall we? I…HEY!" Noel said as Raven grabbed him, in the certain place. "Er, no?"

"Oh no. I was just checking to see if you're still a man, because you certainly don't sound like one." Raven teased.

"That wasn't the impression I was getting three minutes ago. I nearly went deaf."

"Ok, I was wrong. You DO have a huge ego."

"I didn't WILL you to make that noise, you made it."

"Oh shut up!" Raven said, hitting Noel with a pillow. Noel hit her back, and a fierce fight erupted.

"So, you want to do something else?" Raven said later, as she dressed.

"Yeah…why don't we just do something normal? Say, a walk?"

"A walk. Yes, that sounds good." Raven said.

And a few minutes later, barefoot and hand in hand, the couple was strolling up the beach, the waves lapping at their ankles.

"Full moon." Noel noted.

"Actually, it's started to wane. The full moon was yesterday."

"Ah bugger. Well, at least there are no werewolves."

"Don't jinx us."

"So there are werewolves?"

"I've never seen any."

"Give us a few years."

"Best to stock up on the silver."

"Actually, I never understood that. Why silver? Why not aluminum? Or, um…damn, never could remember my periodic table."

"I've read that when silver is inserted into a werebeing's body it meets the unique hormone that such a creature produces and they combine to form a deadly poison."

"That would make sense, except Lon Chaney kept coming back."

"That was a movie."

And so the two walked around the island, talking about whatever came to mind. By the time they came in, they were playing a game where one had to name a movie and then the other had to come up with a movie title that started with the last letter of the name.

"The Searchers."

"Spaceballs."

"Shooting the Past."

"The Year of Living Dangerously."

"Young Guns."

"State of Grace."

"ER."

"That was a TV show."

"It started as a movie and was so popular it BECAME a TV show."

"Cheater."

"Fine. You pick one."

"Fine. Citizen Kane."

"The Exorcist."

"That starts with a T."

"The's don't count."

"Fine. The Cable Guy."

"That's a C movie!"

"You're just mad because you're losing."

"FINE. You've Got Mail."

"Love Is A Many Splendored Thing."

"Indeed it is." Raven said, and gave Noel another kiss.

The two ended up on the couch. Making out? Wrong. Watching television. Noel channel surfed until he found a late movie on the Sci-Fi Channel, _The Crow._

"Must be an omen." Raven said, as she snuggled up against Noel, and the couple quietly watched television. The movie was nearly over when the other Titans arrived home, and somehow, despite being exhausted, they managed to keep quiet enough that neither Noel or Raven heard them. As the credits began to roll, Noel yawned and got up.

"Who was the guy who played Top Dollar in this? I remember his voice but I can NEVER remember his name…" Noel said, as he turned around.

"SURPRISE!" Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg yelled. They were lucky Noel didn't wind up attacking the cake they had for him: he didn't like being startled.

"Happy 19th birthday Noel. And welcome home." Robin said. Noel relaxed and allowed himself a smile.

"Good to be. With all of you. Even Rob, if he's here. Which he isn't. Great, I can make another wish!" Noel said.

Robin facevaulted.

"One of these days we're gonna have to sit the two of you down and work that out. So Noel, heard you tangled with Doomsday!"

"Actually, I hit him a few times, made him mad, and then ran for my life. That was pretty much it."

"All the same, you've been gone a while! So, have you gotten any better?" Robin said, as Kory, Victor, and Gar brought in ice cream, plates, and cutlery.

In a flash the Shimmer had knocked the cake into the air, carved it into 12 slices, and put all of them on plates without the icing even getting smudged even as more strands put twin scoops of ice cream down next to the slices.

All the Titans blinked.

"You tell me." Noel replied.

* * *

Two days later.

Noel reclined in his chair, watching the monitors.

He was alone in the Tower: all the other Titans had been called over by Star Labs. They were moving Aberration, as well as a few other villains that the Titans had caught, and they didn't want a repeat of what had happened with Rob, Kory, and Tara. The Titans had drawn straws to see who got the supposed easier task of staying behind and guarding the place. It was something the Titans did these days, after certain mishaps.

Mostly, it involved watching a bunch of screens and being bored. But Noel could live with that. He had acquired Robin's book of Mensa puzzles and had laid it aside while he currently worked one of the tougher ones around in his mind.

"But if that's the case…could it be a paradox?" Noel said to himself.

A beeping sounded on the monitor. Noel's brow furled, and he leaned down to find out where. He glanced at the defenses: all up and running. Just to be sure, a quick computer check revealed that nothing was projecting a false signal that would give him the false impression that the defenses were up when they weren't.

According to the data, a single, unauthorized person was approaching the Tower. That was all that was being read: one person. No allies or vehicles. Noel began running through possibilities as he enhanced the scans.

Then he REALLY got confused.

According to the scanners, the unknown was approaching from the WATER. Not on a boat, but via SWIMMING. And it appeared to be relatively normal sized. It wasn't Aqualad: he was authorized to approach and wouldn't have set off the defenses. Maybe it was Trident? But if he had broken out, there would be a whole BUNCH of signals.

No, just one. Approaching the island from the water, not in a boat.

Hmmmm, if this was an attack scheme, it was either extremely clever or so half-assed it…or maybe not an attack at all. Maybe a boat had sank and someone was swimming for help, or maybe it was some stupid person who had been dared to swim all the way out to the T-Tower, without knowing the harm that could come to them.

Noel decided he better check this out personally.

The figure wasn't really swimming. He was floating, at the mercy of the waves. But they had not swallowed him yet, and perhaps he had somehow willed himself in some way to make his way to the shores that he was being washed up onto. A slight moan was all the indication that he registered that he was now on back on dry land. Well, moist land.

The figure was hard to make out. He appeared to be wearing an expensive suit, a few thousand at least, before seawater and seaweed had ruined it. That, and the slight bloodstain in the center-left section of his chest. His shoes had long been claimed by the sea, and his hair, copper gray with a few strands of the original red, was plastered to his head. He appeared to be in his late fifties, but he had aged well: he could pass for fifteen years younger, had he not been in the state he was in.

"Hello? Hey, you might…" Noel said as he approached. He'd programmed the defenses to activate at a verbal code. Then he realized that this was definitely a problem. "Hey! You ok? Shit!" Noel said, as he leapt over to the man. He groaned as Noel kneeled down.

"Hey hey, relax, it's ok, I'll get you help…"

"…noel…"

For a moment Noel thought he had misheard.

"…Noel."

A chill ran through the deepest core of Noel's being. Even so, he had enough wits about him to check the man for neck injuries or anything else that could prove dangerous before he turned him over.

The man's bleary eyes were swollen and bloody, as if he had been beaten very recently. They gazed at Savior, and then a slight spark of recognition appeared in them.

"Yes…I made it…thank…no…Noel…"

Noel thought he was dreaming. But a pinch proved that he wasn't. But if he wasn't…how could this man be here?

"…Cameron?" Noel said in disbelief.

For the injured man who had washed onto the shores of the T-Tower was Cameron Mansfield.

Maxwell Collins's right hand man.

_It's time…_

_For a resolution to a hatred that has burned for far too long…_

_And it will leave nothing but ashes in its wake…_

_It finally begins. As it ends._

Next: Sins of the Fathers!


	23. Sins of the Fathers: Revelations

Chapter 25: Revelations

Writer's Note: Well, welcome back. It's been a long time, hasn't it? Well, since it's been so long, I figured a recap might be useful to all of you who have forgotten the plot. So let's finally begin once more…

* * *

His name was Noel Alexander Collins, and he was born to do great things. 

Though such great things turned to be far different then what was intended for him.

Noel was the son of the great businessman Maxwell Collins, a man whose wealth and power seemed only outstripped by his ruthless ambition, ice-cold heart, and capacity for horror. Maxwell saw within his son a chance for immortality, and planned to have him remade in his image. But Maxwell Collins was no classic villain, nothing in the vein of the Blofelds and Fu Manchus. Maxwell did not twirl his moustache and mock the forces of good before he swore to crush them. Such actions would bring…unneeded attention.

Maxwell was more then that. He was as great a serpent as the form Lucifer had taken in the Garden of Eden. Maxwell was a master of insidious rot, slowly, subtly, stripping away everything that could stand before him before anyone knew what was happening, and then delivering fatal blows in both a physical and metaphorical sense. Alone, Noel would have stood no chance, and been promptly remade into his father's dream of immortality.

If not for Noel's kind mother.

The actions and reasons behind Noel's mother, and how she managed, in the face of great resistance, to teach Noel the values he embraced instead, using them to resist the great evil of his father, has always been shrouded in mystery. But Noel did embrace them, rather then his father's teachings (though they took root in him anyway, deep within, occasionally attempting to seek out their supposedly destined dominance, but Noel always battled back and banished them…for that time anyway), and when his mother finally died Noel snapped and fled from his father. The fact that he managed to actually get away should be astounding, if one did not know that that was exactly how Maxwell Collins operated. He was assured in what his son was destined to become, and he knew that nothing would come of his so-called escape. He had not escaped. He had merely entered the next stage of Maxwell's game.

Or so Maxwell thought.

For when Noel arrived in New York, fate reached out and blessed Noel, as an accident transformed him, granting him the powers of the Shimmer. And while Noel's bitter mindset and cynical view of the world did not seem to make him a prime candidate, Noel ultimately decided to use his newly found power for the world and became a superhero. He made his way down to Jump City, where he met the famous Teen Titans through an oblique desire to meet Batman. He joined their ranks.

The rest is history.

And so, did it seem to be, Maxwell's grip on his son.

But looks can be very deceiving…

Noel, after two incidents that had separated him from his group, has finally managed to rejoin them. In that, he finally came together with his love Raven in an intimate way. It seemed life was good.

And now it all seems to be on the verge of falling apart.

Cameron Mansfield has washed ashore. His name should not be familiar, for Noel never had a reason to speak it. But he is the strong right arm of Maxwell Collins' business empire. The empire Noel had thought he had finally escaped from.

The fact that Mansfield is injured and knew who Noel was in his Savior form destroys any chance of this being coincidence…

In all of the connections of the human animal, family is perhaps the deepest by nature. You can pick your friends but you can't pick your relatives, as the saying goes. Blood is thicker then water.

But sometimes water is preferable. Sometimes, the only reason one should know one's family is to know what never to become. For many, family may define them, but for some, it never should.

And if family should not define one, then one is faced with a hard task. But it is a task that can be conquered, through perseverance and never giving up. Blood may link you, but for many, it does not define you. You do, in the end.

But for some…blood is not all that links them.

Sometimes, something far deeper, far darker, far more sinister connects the past and the present.

And sometimes…that link cannot be severed.

Not through normal means.

Sometimes the sins…go far too deep for that.

It is time for the greatest test of Noel Collins.

And unlike so many previous times, the outcome may not be destined to be good…

* * *

_Tragedy, and pain_. 

_All superheroes, as much as I loathe that title at times, all metahumans, those who have abilities that put us "above and beyond all mortal men", are born in the grip of those two monsters._

_Tragedy, and pain._

_Anyone can have toxic waste spilled on them and learn to lift cement trucks with their brains and shoot beams out of their eyes, but being a superhero takes a certain agony, a special fire that burns through you, leaving you…purified, in a sense. Or perhaps tainted with a terrible knowledge of your existence and fellow species, to make one want to pick the task that we so called heroes set out to do. A certain…insanity, I suppose. Or maybe there is no more sanity left. Maybe the sane members of the human race died out long ago, leaving this chaos we enter, willingly._

_Tragedy, and pain._

_And this isn't cynicism. I know damn well you can't take an absolute and apply it to everyone. This life isn't all tragedy and pain. Some of it is simple selfishness, the self-interest that all humans possess. There is no shame in having some. To deny it is to deny a fundamental part of what you are. Too much…that is a problem. But some is inevitable._

_And of course, there are the nobler aspects and feelings. Courage. Freedom…Love. The things that make us just a bit more then hairless apes with large cerebral cortexes. For some, perhaps for many, it is those things that dominate their thinking and actions, the dark origins of them remaining as an undercoating, at best known of but ignored and at worst forgotten altogether. Ignorance IS bliss._

_And then there are those who are born out of those higher ideals. From the little I have learned of Superman from Robin, he was raised in a small town, and raised well, by loving, caring parents. An idyllic setting, one that taught him to use his incredible, god/fate/chance/something else given powers for the good things in life. Perhaps that is why Superman is revered as such a paragon of this wonderful terrible life we call being a superhero._

_But while he may have the luxury of being a paragon, many of us are not. For us, we are born in tragedy and pain._

_It's funny. I think this due to my current situation…and how it draws parallels to my teammates. The ones who formed the core of the team, before I came. Before Tara and Rob. The first five._

_They are all the way they are due to their parents._

_Their fathers._

_Tim, who was truly driven to become Robin when his father and mother were kidnapped and tortured, leaving his mother dead and his father a crippled, empty shell. Jack Drake did pull back from the brink at least, but the origin is set in stone._

_Kory…so sweet, kind, and innocent. Most would never realize that the journey that ultimately ended with her on Earth began when her parents sold her into slavery to end a war. What kind of parents could do such a thing? I hope in the end it can be written off to some alien custom I could never hope to grasp. I don't want to apply human motivations to such a deed. The possibilities scare me._

_Victor…caught in an accident that resulted in the death of his mother, and should have resulted in his death too…had his father, Silas, not been so unwilling to let go. But Victor's body could no longer sustain life…so Silas made it so it could. It was not Victor's choice to become a cyborg, and what he has told us of his time immediately afterward show the anger at that choice not being his. Eventually though, he made peace and good use of it. Silas died soon after, content that he had, at least, reached a happy balance in Victor's future. Silas' money was what helped build the first T-Tower, converting it from his old laboratories. Even so…there are times when you can see the resentment in Victor's eyes, of what he is now. The best of intentions…and yet…_

_Perhaps that is one of the reasons why he and Gar are such close friends. Gar was changed against his will too. His parents were doctors who specialized in the study of animals, and on one of their trips Gar was bitten by a tropical monkey and caught an incredibly rare virus. Sakutia, Green Fever. To cure him, her parents had to synthesize a cure…I'm not sure of the details, but that cure is what turned his skin green and granted him his shape changing abilities. Maybe not a tragedy there…but I'm sure Gar has, in some part of him, a small bit of resentment of being made "abnormal". Once again, the best of intentions…_

_And Raven…well, what else can be said about HER father? I hope he's dead. I really do._

_I only wish the same could be said about mine._

_My father._

_Maxwell Collins._

_Many people regard him as bad…but they have no idea what the word means._

_I do._

_I am his son._

_Born from Vincent Collins, my grandfather, who was a fairly successful businessman himself. But as good as my grandfather, who I have only heard about, was, my father…was beyond it. In a world where everything is divided into degrees of skill, talent, and worth, my father was someone who defied categorization._

_An IQ off the charts. Left college at 12 because he routinely criticized his teachers for being wrong. He'd made his first million by 14. By my age, CollinsCorp was already shooting up the ladder of businesses in the States even as Maxwell was sending out feelers into other markets. Nowadays, you would be hard to find ANYTHING that doesn't have the slightest touch of my father's hand in it. Hell, this building…even it probably has a trace of his taint._

_And taint it is. For my father builds in only one fashion. He destroys others, sucks them dry, burns them to ash, grinds it under his heel and strews salt on it. Never any other way. It's either their end or he'll never begin. And my father can be VERY patient. And ruthlessly cruel in a way that puts some of the more extraordinary evils I've seen in this new life of mine to shame._

_What did this? I do not know. Perhaps my grandfather. It is well known that he pushed my father mercilessly, seeing the talent and skill he had and planning to bring it out to its maximum degree. Indeed, Vincent Collins did not hand his business, what became CollinsCorp, over to my father. He fully expected my father to take it from him. Maxwell did it at the age of fifteen. Content, Vincent retired to a smaller side business to live out his last years and watch his son become a legend._

_And he did. But not in the way that my grandfather had planned. For Maxwell didn't stop after he had wrested the company from HIS father's hands. He went straight after my grandfather, who never knew what hit him. Three years of merciless business and power games left my grandfather penniless and a broken shell that my father ground under his heel. It was said that when he died, he was buried in a pauper's grave because Maxwell claimed to have no knowledge of him. And no one dared dispute that declaration. Maxwell would have broken THEM as well._

_And so it went, for all of my father's adult life. The number of people he has stepped on and tossed aside could fill a phone book. And unlike many, my father seems untouchable. There will be no revenge for his victims when he falls back down the ladder, because he won't fall._

_I know._

_Because he taught it to me. His successor. His clay to mold into his mirror image._

_God I hate him._

_After all I've experienced, all the horrors and madness I've seen…part of my soul still burns with the poison he forced into my veins._

_I've tried so hard to escape him. Tried to hard to flee from his sins…my sins. I am his son. And people like him are one in a billion. What made him may flow through my being…and I can't allow that. This world suffers enough. I cannot let myself be pulled under. I cannot let his corruption consume me._

_So I've run._

_And I've bled, and screamed, and suffered, trying to burn his taint from me, hoping against all hope, that one day I can pay enough penance for the world to forgive me for being the child of Maxwell Collins._

_And now…as I stare down at this man that I've brought into the tower, that I, out of the so called noble qualities of my species, have given medical attention to, to try and save his life…I think it was all in vain, the punchline of some cruel cosmic joke._

_My father was brilliant and ruthless enough, but it was this man, Cameron Mansfield, that truly made him something special. What my father didn't excel at, he did. And while my father came up and went through with all his business strategies by himself, often it was Cameron who was sure they stuck. A top student himself…and one with enough brains to not only realize that Maxwell was destined for "great" things, but enough to convince him to take him along._

_This strange circumstances of his arrival nag at me, but they are quelled by the terrible fear seeping through my being._

_He didn't call me Savior. Or Teen Titan. Hell, it would have been better if he'd called me Goku._

_He called me Noel._

_He knows who I am._

_He found me._

_And if he has…_

_My father…_

_No escape…_

_Maybe…never was…_

* * *

"How the fuck did you find me?" Noel growled. 

Cameron chuckled, though it was clear this caused him great pain. Noel had cut away his seawater-soaked clothes and examined the bullet wound. It was one hell of a lucky shot, for Cameron anyway: it had missed his heart AND the lung closest to it. Still, who knew what seawater would do to a wound? Not that Noel cared much. Cameron's sins were almost as great and many as his father's.

Although (though part of him hated it), Noel had, unlike for his father, a tiny shred of respect for Cameron. The man had more dogged determination then a pound, and whatever he set out to do, he did to the best degree possible. Including survive. Noel wasn't surprised that even with a bullet wound, Cameron had managed to stay alive long enough for the current, which was going out, to pull him to the T-Tower.

"You seem…to have acquired some…needed bluntness…good." Cameron whispered.

"You didn't come here to give me an analysis. TALK! HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND ME! And…argh, who the hell shot you? We'll need to get you to a hospital…" Noel said, although part of his brain was screaming to just let the bastard die, he might not have revealed his identity yet, just let him die…or better yet…

_…help him along…_

Noel shoved that thought down and buried it. That wasn't him. That was…

_Have to do what's best now…_

NO.

"Don't…bother…" Cameron wheezed, and coughed. The white bandage Noel had on his chest reddened a bit. Noel arched an eyebrow. Cameron Mansfield was many things, but suicidal was not one of them.

"Bullet…poisoned. Already in my system. Seawater…slowed it down but…not much time. Your father…doesn't take chances."

"What?" Noel said, stupefied. His father didn't have friends; indeed, things like friendship (and love) were beyond him. His father had assets, useful tools. And Cameron was one of the most useful tools. Maxwell would no more want to kill Cameron then he would want to voluntarily amputate a limb.

Unless…

Cameron chuckled. The patch reddened a bit more. Reacting instinctively, the Shimmer flowed out, picking up some spare bandages and carefully removing the soiled one from Cameron's wound in order to place the fresh one. Cameron glanced at the energy, and then back at Noel.

"When we lost you…never thought we'd find you in a situation like this. No…figured we probably find you'd hanged yourself…"

The Shimmer, the end bladed, slammed down next to Cameron's head, piercing into the pillow that was positioned behind his cranium and sending up a small poof of feathers as Noel glared at Cameron, murder in his eyes.

"No more fucking around. TALK."

"Interesting…" Cameron said. "Useful ability…and, if I may…say so…that is a very good disguise. I can't recognize your face…at all."

"You'd think that would have indicated something." Noel said.

"But…by whatever means you use to disguise it…there's one thing it didn't change…your voice Noel."

"That still doesn't explain anything."

"Not…finished. Your father…always kept his eye on you Noel…due to your…mother…and while you…never spoke to him in anger…you definitely spoke at other times…when you thought you were alone. But you weren't. Your father was always watching…recording…he needed the info in order to properly…mold you…"

Noel wanted to hit Cameron for real this time. No. He wanted to jam the Shimmer into the hole that some assassin's bullet had made and rip out Cameron's black heart and shove it into the mouth that dared soil his mother's memory by talking about her like she was some kind of nuisance.

"And he knew…you very well Noel. So you must understand…it was quite puzzling…not a state he usually found himself in…when he had the news on while he, I, and a few others went over some details for our current takeover…to suddenly hear your angry voice coming out of the TV…from some white-haired freak who was yelling at the media."

Noel's eyes narrowed, as rage continued to smolder in his eyes. Of all the things that would bring him down in some form, Noel had always figured the pack of bloodthirsty vultures that made up the media would play a role in it. But not like this.

"After that…it was just…needed research. We know everything Noel. Of your…Titans…how you got your…abilities…everything. It took us…a long time to get everything…your father wanted to be…prepared for anything…when he took you back."

Noel opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again, as the rage in his eyes appeared ready to burst into flame.

"Ah…you understand. You can't escape."

"He won't take me back. I will never be his heir, his successor. His immortality. If he really wants immortality, have him purchase another trophy wife from one of the businessmen who constantly suck up to him."

"Oh no…no Noel. He won't have any of it. Your father…always gets it right the first time. He was…quite adamant about it…especially after…your mother."

"This is one battle he won't win."

"…heh heh heh."

"What's so funny?"

"I figured…you understood by now…your father always wins Noel. It is virtually a law of physics."

"I've seen those laws broken. I think I can deal with his gigantic ego and megalomania."

"You think it will…be like one of those battles you've had? You think…your father…is akin to some freak in a silly costume? You don't…know him Noel."

"Oh…yes I do."

A gigantic flash lit up the room, and when it faded, Noel was back in his normal body. A form he rarely wore any more, unless he had to heal injuries for his other form and his love was worn out. He kept it clean and wearing neat clothes, but besides that he was always Savior, Teen Titan. But now he was just Noel…Collins.

_Doomed…_

NO.

Noel leaned down so he could look into Cameron's eyes. He'd looked up at those eyes many times in his life, as a child, always marveling at Cameron's sense of style and poise, and then, as he grew older, becoming angered at how well Cameron hid his rotten self behind that style and poise.

Indeed, rotting was becoming more apt from what Noel could smell on Cameron's breath. Something was indeed working on Cameron's insides, insuring his death. A death that would be lucky to be traced to his father, much less him being accused of it. No. His father was too good at that. Far too good.

In his quest for more power, more victories, Maxwell Collins had the blood of thousands on his hands. And he would leave this earth without being charged or punished for a single one.

"You see, I was always listening. I listened those many nights when Maxwell brought work home with him, and he and you discussed the various…problems you were having. Tell me…since you're doing to die anyway, and I'm sure the devil is already preparing your spit, those rumors about Florida….are they true?"

"Florida?" Cameron asked.

"YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! IT DOMINATED THE DAMN HEADLINES FOR A YEAR! The incident they called Cuba Burning!" Noel yelled. "How Castro tried a repeat of his 80's "Empty the Prisons and Asylums and Send Them To America" trick that sparked a massive refugee crisis! Millions of refugees getting jammed into tiny camps! How a few members of the government saw a prime opportunity to get rid of Castro once and for all…"

"What are…you babbling about? Your father…had nothing to do with that…how could…"

Noel seized Cameron by his chin and glared into his eyes, which were starting to dull. Not much longer.

"The official story was that all the deportations and chaos finally messed up Castro's army enough so that the people rebelled, but the rebellion got out of control and most of Cuba burned to the ground. What was repressed, much like the story of the truck crash that created me, wasn't that the Cuban people rebelled and got destroyed in their own anger. What destroyed was the new strain of smallpox the US Government infected the refugees with before sending them back to Castro! Cuba was destroyed in a pandemic! The US government burned the place down to cover it up! And they did the same thing to a small Florida town that picked up a refugee boat that the Coast Guard missed after its people had been infected and sent back! The false trails and dead ends are labyrinth, but some people picked up that certain materials were acquired, at great cost of course, from none other then Maxwell Collins. Materials that were needed to make the project work. For the sake of a few more hundred million dollars, my father helped destroy a country. At least, that was the rumor. So tell me…is it true?"

Cameron stared at the furious Noel, and then he chuckled.

"Well Noel…you know your father…what do you think?"

Noel stared, and then he dropped Cameron's head back down against the pillow. The new bandage was stained, but Noel didn't bother replacing it this time. Cameron didn't much seem to care, as he cough and a thin trail of blood bubbled out, trickling down his chin.

"You know…you most likely don't care…but I must say Noel…congratulations…I always felt that you were far too passive-aggressive in your attempted resistance from your father…this life you chose has put some steel into your spine."

"You're too kind." Noel said sarcastically. He had walked over to a table, and he retuned dragging a chair while holding something in his other hand.

"What are you…"

"Tape recorder." Noel said, holding it up. He put it on the nearby table. "In case you want to record a new last will and testament."

"Why would you…"

"Be so considerate? Because that's what we do. If we let personal feelings cloud the issues of why we try and help the human race, I'd probably let half the morons we save rot. And you definitely. But that's what I want. This is the way it is." Noel said.

Cameron chuckled again. More blood dribbled down his chin.

"Now…there's your mother in you."

"Don't mention her name again you piece of shit. You soil her memory just by thinking about her. Give me your last wishes. We may as well know what evil purposes your money will be going to after the devil has your soul."

"No need…I redid my will…before I came here…"

That bit of knowledge stunned Noel, not in of itself but the ramifications. If Cameron had redone his will…that indicated…

"You look surprised Noel…you don't think I had this in me?"

"You DON'T have that in you. You're slime."

"Perhaps…" Cameron said, and sighed. "I knew…about four months ago…Maxwell and I were working on something and we had a mild disagreement. It was a small issue, which we easily worked out…but the look your father gave me at one point…it was then, I knew."

"He was going to turn on you."

"You know…your father Noel. He has…to win. And to win, he has to have someone…to fight. He's been doing this for over twenty years. All the worthy opponents are either gone or keeping a long distance from him to avoid trouble. Maxwell needs victories…like other people need air…and he was willing to do anything to get them…I suppose I always pondered that in the years beforehand…but when I saw that look, I knew. He was sizing me up. I could already see the wheels start to turn. I had helped him many a time, but he doesn't much care. The money is a smokescreen. Maxwell needs to WIN. And I knew I'd soon become just another notch on his belt."

"Self-interest." Noel said, snorting derisively.

"Yes…but not all that."

"Bullshit. In your best times you regarded me as a joke Cameron. You still do, due to my supposedly futile fight against my father. And most of the time you had more hostile feelings towards me, seeing me as someone who would eventually usurp your position. You're a cockroach scampering under the fridge, except your head has already been removed."

"My…when did you…become so cynical Noel?"

"This life…it tends to keep your hopes for the future small and dull. But it's a million times better then what my father planned."

"Yes…yes I know. I always knew people…Noel. Like I said, your father and I…studied you…greatly…I've seen your battles Noel. There are some things you cannot fake…your dedication to this foolish, selfish society was one. I knew…why you did it…why you always took so much abuse and kept going…and I saw…you do…marvelous things. You even saved the world. I always…admired…great deeds. If you've forgotten…I was the one who gave you most of your war books."

Noel remembered. He wished he hadn't.

"I do not think…I have wasted my life…this is what I choose…you condemn me for it but I…have no regrets. You predict punishment in biblical terms…saying I will suffer in hell…yet it says God gave man free will…I choose to do this…it was what made me content…I think God supposedly wanted his creation to be happy…if what comes after is by those terms…then God is nothing but a hypocrite…for condemning me for choosing to use his gift for me in that way."

"Well, they say God's ways are beyond the understanding of man. In this case, I hope what they say is right."

"Ah…no mercy…now there's your father…"

Noel barely held himself back from killing Cameron right then and there, again. A small part of his brain piped up, saying Noel was treading into scary territory, but the part currently dominating it quickly shut it up.

"In any case…what I saw…it impressed me Noel. You did what you thought…was right…right…laughable…but your viewpoint and mine are not the same…hell…by stopping that Night fellow…you probably saved my life as well. When I compared what I saw…with what Maxwell had planned for you…unyielding and unrelenting in his plan for you…and his plan for me…I made a decision. I decided you at least…deserved a warning…thought I was careful enough…but he found out. Should have known…they say knowledge is power…and considering the power your father has…his knowledge must be beyond all scope…"

"Get to the point."

"Two cars…ran me off the road…almost made it to the harbor…tried to run…catch a boat…they got me anyway…end of the pier…but the tide was going out…pulled me away before they could finish the job…and fate guided me to you. It's clear…I was meant to tell you…what I decided to tell you."

"What? My dad? Let him come. I'll be ready. So will my friends. We'll cram the bitter taste of defeat down his throat."

"No…the truth…about what happened to…Crystal."

The same ice that had invaded Noel's being when he had first seen Cameron suddenly came roaring back, but Noel slammed the brakes on it.

"What about my mother? I'm pretty sure I know."

"You just…heard rumors. Possibilities. I have…THE TRUTH."

The cold overwhelmed the blockade and consumed Noel's entire being. For a moment he was speechless. Strangely, Cameron grinned, just a tad.

"Ah…I see…you would like…this information…perhaps you should have not been so free-flowing…with your insults…"

A giant flash blinded Cameron, keeping him blind as Savior grabbed Cameron's shoulder and yanked him up with his left hand as a wicked looking bladed instrument formed on the right arm of Noel. As the dancing spots faded, Cameron looked into Noel's furious face.

"TALK, or I'll yank the information out of your brain with all the grace of a dull spoon." Noel hissed.

_Do it anyway. Destroy him…_

NO.

"Ack…very…well…"

"TALK. What did Maxwell do to my mother? The same thing you did to your wife? I swear, both of you must have gotten married on bets."

"No…heh. I married for what I thought was love. She brought what happened on herself…" Cameron muttered, and winced as Noel tightened the grip on his shoulder. Cameron's wife, Corinne, had been a former model, and, revealed later, a master manipulator. The honeymoon wasn't over before she started screwing around. The divorce came eight months later, and Corinne had put Cameron through the wringer, not for any real reason but that she enjoyed doing it.

She had NO idea what she had messed with. Cameron had collected himself, gone back to work, waited 21 months…and then the accidents started happening. Her dogs ate poisoned meat. Her parents lost the home they had built themselves. Her sister contracted AIDS. And eventually Corinne was arrested for passing bad checks, a crime she swore she didn't commit, and sentenced to seven years in prison. One of the nastiest prisons in the United States, which she should have NEVER gone to. The hideous women of the place broke her mind, and she had spent the rest of her life in an insane asylum before she finally hung herself.

When Cameron Mansfield set out to do something, he did it the best. Including revenge.

Noel knew. The authorities had investigated but found no links. Cameron had alibis for everything, and the police had nothing to work with. But Noel knew he had done it. He'd heard it straight from the horse's mouth, those many nights on the stairs, his mother asleep and the servants paid off so they didn't bother him, listen to Maxwell, Cameron, and many others talk, plan, flesh out, and seal the nights away…

He was born with the purpose to enter THAT world…

"Forget what you did. What about my mother?"

"Oh yes. Crystal Rebeles, daughter of a software tycoon. And the last name fit. Your grandfather on your mother's side was always a rather quiet, calm man, so we can only assume it came from your grandmother, who died giving birth to Crystal…."

Cameron began coughing violently. The bloodstain on the bandage had gone from red to an unhealthy black color, but Noel didn't much care. Cameron was not quite a monster, but he was pretty damn close.

If Cameron noticed Noel's lack of concern he didn't say anything about it, as he continued.

"Her nickname was Katerina. From the _Taming of the Shrew_ play. And it fit. She was pure hellfire. Wild, uncontrollable, unable to be tied down. It was said to be a power marriage…but the truth was, it was due to an errant comment by someone Maxwell was talking to. Maxwell was barely older then you, but he was already making waves and gaining a reputation as a merciless competitor. I don't remember…who said it…but the comment was that while Maxwell could defeat anyone in the boardroom, Crystal was an insurmountable goal. That was what sparked your father's interest, what led to the marriage. To this day I have no idea why Crystal went along with it. She dug in and dragged her heels, but not as much as she could. I always thought that maybe…it was for you Noel. She wanted strong stock to raise as she chose…but that's just my opinion."

"Duly noted. Talk. Your amount of time left on this world can probably be measured on one hand. Both at most."

"Your father…your father did not hate. He considered it a waste of energy. But Crystal…I believe he came close. For you see Noel, he married her to break her. To take away her fire. Just like what happened to her…nicknamesake, you might say. He wanted to tame the shrew. But he couldn't. And he tried. He tried everything. But Crystal simply would not break. After you were born, Maxwell knew he had to do something, or else Crystal…so he did."

"You make it sound so innocent. HE GAVE HER A FUCKING LOBOTOMY! THE FUCKING BASTARD RAPED HER SPIRIT AND LEFT IT DEAD! Don't you DARE try to say he didn't! I don't care if all I have to go on his rumor. I know what he did."

"Well…rumor no more…that is what he did. Although nothing as crude as a lobotomy. It took a long time to set her up…your mother was very cautious. But your father had the patience of a…heh…saint…when the car accident happened, he had it arranged so she would be transferred into doctors under his thumb. And they…removed the irritating parts of her. If Maxwell couldn't break her, he'd just take away what made her. He has to win, Noel. Always."

_Your lineage…_

NO.

"Well great. You verified something I knew anyway. In the end, your information proved to be just like you Cameron. Worthless. Rot in hell."

"I'm…not…done…there is something even you don't know…in your hatred…Noel…" Cameron said, and began coughing again. This time, whatever black stuff was oozing from his chest wound came out of his mouth. "Your mother…wasn't…natural…"

"What do you mean wasn't…na…tur…oh god. No." Noel said, as something he had never even considered came to the forefront of his mind. "But…"

"Maxwell thought after the…correction…that everything was set. Your mother was now a non-factor, and he could raise you as he saw fit. But there was something…even he never saw. It was hidden well under her ferocity, but your mother had a kind soul. And with her…irritations gone…it came out full force. You never saw his anger, but I…did Noel. He was doing everything short of brainwashing you…and you didn't absorb any of it. You sat and learned at your mother's feet. And slowly your…acknowledgement of what your father was trying to teach you turned to contempt. It was around then that Maxwell knew he was never going to win…unless he…"

"It was liver cancer…doctors tested it extensively…it was…"

"Your father was…a very patient man Noel. He told no one…not even me. I guessed it from…a few things…I found…orders. For…various items. He took his time…like it was a long-term business project. A little in her food, a little in her drink…very slow…to ensure that there wouldn't be any consequences if you accidentally ingested a little. It took over five years…but eventually…he succeeded. His patience…paid off. Your mother…hardly drank at all Noel. She certainly didn't need to…to dull any terrible pain. She shouldered that…on her own…like you do."

Noel said nothing. He couldn't.

"You call me terrible things…maybe they are true…but Noel…what your father did…it bothered even me. I never knew of a case where a man was willing to wait years…to get rid of…a so-called problem. That is why…I say…despite all your efforts…even my warning, which will cost me my life…your father will claim you Noel. You will become what he wants."

"No…" Noel said, but the defiant tone was gone. It had been replaced by the tone of a child cowering under his bed sheets, terrified the monster under the bed was going to emerge at any second and devour him. Except in Noel's case, the monster was real, and his fate would be far worse then being eaten physically. He would be devoured in moral and spirit, and spit out as…

_Your destiny._

_NO._

_We have played long enough. Just give in to the inevitable. Your true self…_

_A POISON!_

_Your future._

_NO! NO! **NO!**_

"I'm not sure what exactly he will do…but he has arranged many angles of attack Noel. None of them that your friends can probably handle. This won't be some…freak they can punch and kick into submission. It will be through your laws, your systems. Eventually…the Titans will leave you Noel…or more likely, you will leave them to spare them the pain. And if you don't…every child has a breaking point. Your father will find one in here eventually. He can be…very patient…"

Cameron's eyes were going dull.

"So goodbye Noel…may you find pleasure in your life…what's left of it…because it won't be yours for much longer. Your father…always wins Noel…he always…wins…"

The last bit of air hissed out of Cameron's lungs, and Noel was left alone.

* * *

To Noel, the bit that finally made it all drive home was the sudden terrible smell as, without life to keep them clenched, Cameron's bowels let themselves go. It was a very undignified gesture, but death didn't much care about dignity. 

Noel covered Cameron's body with a sheet, but he didn't remember it. His body was on autopilot, as his brain tried to come to grips with what he had heard.

It was worse then he thought. It was worse then he could have ever imagined. His father was more then a spiteful, cruel, heartless bastard. He was…

_Evil…_

And he knew about Noel now. He'd be coming soon…

_Already here…_

Noel knew what Cameron was talking about. There were a million tricks Maxwell could use. He could go after the building itself, bringing up zoning laws, health codes, the whole works. He could target the Titan's underage status, their relation with the police department, the penal system, everything. He could bury them in red tape until their team name was the Senior Titans. And that was just legal stuff. So many years of business…how many contacts did he have? How well could he manipulate people? How many lives would he destroy…to get what he wanted?

_Always wins… _

_Much…like you…_

Noel wrapped up Cameron's body and took it off the couch (he hoped Cameron didn't stain it), laying it on the ground. The tape recorder was still running, long forgotten: Noel absent-mindedly turned it off.

He sat down at the table, looking over the room, remembering the first time he had come in here. New, alone, lonely, so desperate to escape his horrible past. The Titans had given him a home…accepted him…one had loved him…given him greater joy then he had ever thought he would have, or deserve.

_He'll take it all away… _

_Accept it. Accept who you are. You cannot escape it._

_You are his son._

_Accept his sins._

And Noel thought.

And thought.

And thought.

He sat at the table for nearly four hours, thinking about everything. He did not cry, or scream, or rage, or even speak. He sat and he thought.

And he, in the end, realized what he had to do.

The Shimmer flowed from his hand, heading over to a nearby desk, as it removed…a pen and a piece of paper that it brought back over to Noel.

And Noel began to write.

* * *

Roughly two hours later… 

"I am NEVER doing that again. EVER." Raven growled as she walked into the Tower. Her skin was still tingling from the "incident", and all she wanted was to shower and to go to bed. She hoped Noel wasn't feeling amorous from a few nights ago: this would be a bad time for them to take their "second swing".

"Oh come on Rae, it wasn't THAT bad." Cyborg said, trying to make peace, even though it was clear Beast Boy and he were a hair away from bursting into laughter, and Robin and Starfire didn't look far behind.

"You didn't have it happen to you! It was a very strange, very unpleasant experience! I say we give Gar twenty demerits for it!"

"Raven, we don't give out demerits." Robin said, trying hard not to chuckle.

The moving of the prisoners had gone without incident, but while they were doing that the scientists had also been moving some gear. One had been a strange gun they said was harmless that Beast Boy just HAD to play with. Robin wasn't sure what the gun had been built for, but he would remember for a while what it had done: zapped Raven and switched her skin and cloak color, so that her cloak was a dusky pale shade and her skin was a deep purplish blue. The scientists had fixed the problem within five minutes, but Raven had been pretty ticked off about the whole thing. It didn't help that Victor and Gar saw the whole thing as a huge joke.

"Well we should! You people…suck!" Raven snapped, and turned to leave.

The Titans tried to stay quiet.

(Writer's Note: And then they teased Raven by singing "Blue" by Effiel 65, but since we can't use songs any more, that scene is now gone. In any case, it ended with Starfire dancing around...)

And she rounded the couch.

And screamed.

The other Titans were pretty freaked out about finding the body as well, even if it was wrapped neatly in a sheet. So much so, in fact, that no one thought to ask the question until two minutes later. Strangely, it was Beast Boy who did so.

"Hey, where's Noel?"

Robin found it within ten seconds. He was a speed reader, and was able to scan the whole thing in twenty seconds.

And it took a strange situation and suddenly made it into a catastrophe.

"Guys…" he said, turning around. "You better read this."


	24. Sins of the Fathers: The Letter

Chapter 26: The Letter

"The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the ends justifies the means."

Georges Bernanos

My Dear Friends,

Writing this is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and after all I have seen and done with you, that is truly saying something.

Hardship. For us it is a constant companion. And the strange thing is, you cannot truly understand that until you try to live our lives. Certainly the general public rarely understands. Little kids tie sheets around their necks and jump off roofs, calling themselves Buttkicking Man and dreaming of possessing all our powers, gadgets, and costumes. Older people either covet or resent our abilities, mutations, or gifts, thinking of how much easier their lives would be if they had what we had. For some, the resentment goes even deeper, thinking we are irresponsible, that we should not have such abilities at our age, if at all. The media…well, they're the media. But none of them truly understand that while this can be a life of wonder and magic, it is far more often a life of danger, pain, stress, and horror. Doing what we do may seem grand when everyone is cheering you, but if that cheering comes after a battle that has cost you an ally or a friend, the whole thing rings hollow. This is not an easy life, and anyone who think otherwise is either uninformed or a fool.

I was neither when I first gained my abilities. Though I did not know in what form, I assumed that after my trifle with the dark side brought me no contentment that I would be using my abilities, if not for good, then for others, and I knew that this life would be hard. My own life was hard before, struggling with who I was and what I seemed destined to do, but I knew that whatever faced me when I was splashed with that toxin and gained the Shimmer would make it all pale in comparison. I thought I was prepared.

I was wrong, in many ways. But not as wrong as I could have been. I have suffered greatly in my time here, but so have we all, and together we have persevered and shouldered on to whatever may be awaiting us. How many people could have endured what we have and still stayed together without true resentment or worse seething beneath the surface, especially considering our age? That, perhaps above everything else, is what gives me hope when things look bleakest. Or what gave me hope.

I have none now. I have tried with all my strength, but the light within me has died. It appears that life has finally succeeded in snuffing it out, for all my preparation. I knew this life would be difficult, and I don't resent it. There is a phrase by G.K Chesterton that goes "Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel." That is our life. We are the Teen Titans…superheroes. The title carrying a grave weight, and I was willing to play Atlas.

But my back has been broken. To quote someone who you are likely more familiar with, the cartoon sailor Popeye, "I stands all I can stands, and I can't stands no more." The phrase may amuse you, and its context may seem noble and heroic, but that is neither my feeling nor my intention. I cannot stand any more. I cannot be something I am not.

* * *

_The light flicked on, revealing the business side of the Titans' garage. Their normal vehicles kept on one side, and on the other were more recently developed automobiles, which were ironically begun work on after Noel's suggestion that they have vehicles for combat and vehicles for fun._

_Noel walked past the automobiles covered in tarps, seeing several new shapes that Cyborg must have begun building while he was gone. He wasn't interested in those though. He was interested in the one at the end._

_Cyborg's new baby._

* * *

The body, as you have most likely discovered it by now, is Cameron Mansfield, who until recently served my father as his strong right arm. A combination of selfishness, attempted self-preservation, and maybe, just maybe, a small glimmer of nobility brought him to our doorstep while you were gone. Before he passed on to whatever he earned on the other side, he revealed to me something that I had long expected but never had solid proof for…and some things even I could not have believed. The details of what he said may be found on the tape recorder, if you should so care for them, but in the end the tape is irrelevant.

My father murdered my mother. No, even such a horrible thing as murder cannot begin to describe the evil he inflicted on her for his selfish, cruel arrogance. He…he damned her, as surely as the devil would, and carried out a horrendous punishment for her so called sins…except the sins were his own, not hers, which takes the crime he committed and graduates it to atrocity. And she is just one of many. My father has oceans of blood on his hands, some deserving, but most innocent. Even the evils of Jack and the Lord cannot touch what my father did, for while Jack did what he did out of a insane pleasure, and the Lord out of some insane sense of correction, my father did it because he believed that he had every right to do it. In all his crimes, he truly believes in his heart of hearts that nary the slightest wrong has been committed. This is not delusion, nor ignorance. He KNOWS that his word is law and his will is reality.

In the end, that sin stains him far darker then even the worst of our foes.

* * *

_Noel approached the car. Well, that was what it was on the surface. While the T-Car, Cyborg's baby, was designed to be specifically a car, and was outfitted accordingly, this vehicle was designed for a different purpose: for casual errands on the surface, and, if needed, a way to get someplace as fast as possible without calling on a teammate._

_The T-Car Mark 2.5 wasn't fully completed: it was still lacking weapons, defenses, and even locks on the doors, but it had one safety feature: it wouldn't start unless a code was inputted. That code was known to Cyborg, Robin…and Noel, for Victor knew he was the only one who would only use the vehicle if he absolutely had to, and wouldn't take it for a joyride._

_It was Cyborg's mother's name. Elinore._

* * *

My father will never see a courtroom. He will never even be accused. Anyone who tries will be spun away and then vanish, by fair means or foul. Any attempt to stop him will be met with something that even we metahumans are powerless against: an endless storm of red tape, paper, bureaucracy, and the weapons of the "establishment" that will bog us down until we either go away or are discreetly disposed of, in one way or another. My father will get the best medical care if he gets sick, will be able to buy any organs or parts needed to replace any that happen to grow faulty. And he will continue to reach out and destroy everything. For your crime of befriending me, he will surely seek to destroy you. It will just be one more part in his ultimate goal of immortality through me.

The law cannot touch him. Justice cannot touch him. Even the great powers of the universe cannot touch him…for to do what needs to be done, it will involve crossing a line we cannot cross, for if we do, it immediately taints all our goals and convictions into pointless irrelevance.

But there are times when the only way to beat an enemy is to become worse then them. In reality, the main reason the Vietnam War was lost was because the only way to beat an enemy that would utilize the tactics the Vein Cong were recorded to have used is to out-horror and out-atrocity them at every turn. But a democracy cannot do this, and the results speak for themselves.

This is one of those times.

I am going to kill my father.

* * *

_Noel eased the car out of the garage and began flipping switches. The car/jet was designed much like the Delorian from the Back To The Future films, albeit it needed a little time to get off the ground and into the air, like a normal plane. But the highway that was rising out of the water to connect the T-Tower to the mainland would be distance enough._

_Part of Noel wanted to turn back, to say goodbye to the only home he had ever known. But he did not. He kept his eyes forward, his pupils steel, his softer, gentler feelings slowly being crushed under a growing tidal wave. There was no burning rage like some of the other times that Noel had been angered. Rather then heat, this feeling was cold, as frozen as the farthest moon, a conviction and rage that had driven some of the men in history to things better left unsaid._

_Much like this._

* * *

I will not try and produce reasons, or necessities, or excuses for what I am about to do. It is not justice, as some would say, and it is not deserved, as others would. I do not believe in a death for a death. I have done some bad things. I have punished some people more severely then others. I have even expressed it verbally. But in my heart, I did not believe it.

And I don't believe it now. There is nothing heroic or even human in what I am going to do. I am going to kill my father in cold blood, not because it needs to be done for the greater good, or to save you, or me. I am going to do it because it is what needs to be done, in as of itself. He needs to be punished…and so do I.

I am his son. His taint runs in me. And he will not stop, will not rest, will not yield, relent, or concede until he had remade me as him. Will not stop until the world cannot go a generation without his crimes and destruction seeking out and crushing so many underfoot, for no other reason then it supposedly is supposed to be that way.

I will not let the world suffer that. It does not deserve it.

When I am done, I will surrender into your custody, as you surely will come chasing after me full bore after you read this, under the conviction that you must. You will not reach me in time: I have sabotaged everything in the Tower that could allow you to do so. Once you have me, I will quietly go into whatever cell the system sends me to, and there I will stay until I die, sparing the world my father's taint. I must do that. It is what must happen to my line.

I will not allow one more Crystal Rebeles. My mother never deserved what befell her. But what will befall me…it is what is needed. I have to die, and so does my father.

I wish there was another way. I have slaved and raged and pondered and hoped…and I know that this is the only future I can have. I am not a Teen Titan. I am not a superhero. I'm not even human. I'm poison borne from a vile so deep and black it will choke out the world unless I turn on it…on myself…and purge it from existence.

Goodbye my friends. I wish I could say I'll treasure my time I spent with you.

But I won't.

I don't even deserve that.

Sincerely

Noel Collins

Savior

* * *

Robin lowered the letter to the table, his look of deep shock mirrored in the face of all his comrades. Indeed, it had struck so profoundly that none of them immediately leapt into action like they usually would.

"That's it." He said.

"My god…" Cyborg said, putting his hand to his head. "What just happened?"

Sudden movement caught the Titan's eyes, and they turned to see…Starfire, who had suddenly flown over to the wrapped body of Cameron Mansfield and yanked the front up so she was looking into his dead face.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HIM!" she screamed. "What words did you tell him to drive Noel into such a pit of self-loathing destructive despair? You BASTARD!" Starfire said, drawing back an arm as her hand and eyes glowed green.

A metal hand closed gently on her wrist.

"He's already dead. Don't waste your energy on punishing him." Cyborg said. Starfire looked at Cyborg, back at Cameron's pale face, and then back at Cyborg, and then let the body drop, the head thumping lightly back on the floor as she stood up.

"Such pain…" she whispered, suddenly feeling cold. She made a strange noise that sounded like an aborted sob that came out as a sneeze.

"…What do we do? How…why….what?" Beast Boy said.

"This has clearly been brewing for a long time." Robin said, trying to get his brain into gear and formulate a plan. _CollinsCorp's head office is in Los Angeles…my god, Noel must have taken Cyborg's new jet-car…how fast can it go, Mach-4? How long has he been gone? How much of a head start does he have? Dammit, if he sabotaged the other vehicles there's no way we can catch up to him…maybe we should call Bart…or Superman…_ "Damn, DAMN! I should have seen this coming. Noel's feelings…about himself and us and his father…and with his father's resources and ruthlessness…damn it!"

"Hey Tim, don't beat yourself up too bad. Hindsight is always 20/20 and almost always pointless." Cyborg said.

"Yeah, what we need to do is find a way to stop Noel, even if we have to tie him down and FORCE this junk that Camsfield or whatever fed to him out." Beast Boy said.

"I don't think that will be enough." Raven said quietly.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Rae, what are you talking about? He's your boyfriend, you should…"

"I know why he did this." Raven said. "I saw."

"Raven?" Starfire said quizzingly.

"It was after we beat my father…I was feeling confused…unsure…so I…" Raven said, and as quickly as she could, told the Titans of how she had taken a trip into Noel's mind via her mirror and what she had found in the deepest part of him: Cruelty, the manifestation of his father who said, and swore, that eventually it would be the dominant emotion.

"Noel…I think he somehow knew about what I saw…knew what lurked within him…but he thought that the way he was living could keep it controlled, locked up. But whatever Cameron said…it's broken that resolve. It's broken NOEL. He's like an animal backed into a corner, so full of anger against his father, fear that we'll be hurt, and anguish over his so called absolute fate of becoming something he hates so much…it's like some kind of two-man seppuku. He truly thinks he deserves to be punished…Robin, even if we can catch up to him, we may have to treat him like an enemy…"

"GUYS!" Cyborg suddenly roared, causing everyone to jump.

"Victor, don't…!" Robin yelled.

"Quiet!" Cyborg said. While the others had been talking, something had struck him…something odd. And he had decided to check on it.

But even he hadn't expected to find what he had found.

"Guys, I'm not sure about this, but I think this situation just got a hell of a lot worse." Cyborg said.

"What? How could this get any worse?" Beast Boy said.

And then they saw.

And they knew he was right.

And as the full realization sunk in, a fire was lit underneath all of their feet, as Robin immediately turned, running, yelling orders that he sensed the Titans already knew.

"Everyone, down to the garage! Maybe Noel didn't sabotage the vehicles well enough, maybe they can be repaired! Everyone synchronize their com units, maybe we can get ahold of him! AND MOVE! We have to stop this before…!" Robin didn't finish his sentence as he and the Titans ran like all the demons of hell were on their heels.

He didn't want to finish his sentence because he had a sinking feeling it was already too late.

* * *

The room was made of the finest material known to man: the most well-crafted wood, marble, and metal, carefully traced with a few patterns made of more precious metals so that the overall effect was powerful and not gaudy. This was the 77th floor of CollinsCorp, and besides the very slight noise coming from behind the doors, the only human visible was the secretary, a middle-aged woman named Fiona Lui. She had been at her position for nearly 16 years, mostly because she was the best at her job, worked her ass off, and most importantly, spoke, heard, and saw no evil. She was fairly comfortable at her position and what she had had to give up to get there.

After today, the conviction wouldn't be so certain, as the elevator doors opened with a slight chime.

Fiona was filling in the last bit of her current paperwork and hence didn't look up immediately.

It was straight out of the Matrix, as Noel stepped out of the elevator clad entirely in black. And it wasn't in his Savior form, but the form he had been born in and raised in, before fate had seemingly given him an escape. A false hope, like all others, in the end, and after this Noel would be plagued with them no more.

His trenchcoat swirled around his boots and black jeans, the tight black shirt hugging his frame, his deep red hair carefully tied behind him in a long ponytail (he'd spent so long in his Savior form that he'd neglected to get his other one a haircut, but that didn't matter any more). He was not wearing shades though: the outfit had not been chosen in regards to any movie, but rather the fact that before his life had changed Noel had never worn anything like this (indeed, the idea for the jeans and jacket for Savior had come from the fact that normal before powers Noel Collins never wore anything like that. How was that for irony?). It had allowed him to move around the building without anyone recognizing him.

Long enough to get into the building, where he had switched forms and, over the course of twenty minutes, sabotaged all the security systems, knocked out all the security guards by issuing a false alarm that gathered them all in one place before he did so and tied them up. He had then called all the elevators except one down to the basement and slashed the cables, and then crept up the stairs and rigged a special something on the sets of stairs that crossed from the 74th to the 78th floor. Once that was done, he headed into the one lone elevator he had spared, rigged something there too, and went up as he switched back to his normal form.

There would be no escape.

Fiona finally registered that someone was walking towards the main boardroom doors and looked up.

"Hey, you can't go in there! Hey! You need an appointment!" Fiona said, as she reached over and placed her finger on the button for security, not knowing that she could press it until the cows came home and went to bed, it wouldn't summon anyone.

Then Noel turned towards her.

It took a moment to register before her eyes widened.

"Wha-"

Noel pulled the gun from inside his coat and blew the thin paper book on the desk next to Fiona to scrap, sending her back and to the right with a startled gasp as fear suddenly brimmed in her eyes at the intense glare Noel leveled at her.

"You better get down the stairs…" Noel began, and then a loud bang came from the elevator that Noel had just stepped out of and the car disappeared from view as the doors closed, heading down, as the C4 Noel had planted on the cables blew and rendered the last elevator useless as it plummeted all the way down to the sub basement. It was going to make one hell of a crash when it landed. "They're going to blow in three minutes."

And then he turned and headed back to the door. Fiona watched his back for a moment and then realized that whatever was happening, it didn't concern her at the moment, and from what she had gathered from the brief glimpse into the eyes of the child she had once known, now a adult possessing a fury that she could barely comprehend, she didn't want it to concern her, at all.

The door to the stairs was closing behind Fiona when the elevator hit the ground, sending a shockwave through the whole building. The gunshot, though muffled, had been heard by the people inside the boardroom, and the resulting vibration from the impact of the elevator might have caused them to get up and see what was going on.

Except they never got the chance, as Noel reared back his foot and kicked the doors right in the center, sending them slamming open with a loud crash.

Noel didn't say anything as he strode into the inner room. There were about eight of them, all of them staring at him in surprise, confusion, and a little fear at the suddenness of it all.

Then some of them began to recognize him as she stopped. For a moment, the dukes stared at the seemingly returning prince.

"Get out." Noel hissed.

There was a slight murmur as the board members, taken slightly aback by the whole thing, tried to figure out what to do.

**_"GET OUT!"_** Noel roared as he raised his gun and emptied it into the ceiling. The sudden loud racket and the blasts of fire that seemed to be a hair away from going into their bodies instead of the ceiling was all the men needed in the way of answers, as they all rose from their chairs in a panic, some tripping over themselves in their haste, and fled past Noel as he lowered his gun.

He ignored them. He didn't care if they made it down the stairs before the C4 blew, if they were stuck on the same floor, if it blew while they were escaping and sent them straight to hell, if the second coming came, or if Mad Mod suddenly appeared and confessed to killing and eating Jimmy Hoffa before he sang "Oh Solo Mio" at the top of his lungs. His attention was totally riveted on the man at the other side of the table.

The man who had not fled.

The man who was giving him a rather quizzical look as he lifted the pen from the paper he had been making a note on when Noel had burst in, slowly pressing in the tip of the gold pen to retract the point.

Despite the gray hair, a gray neatly trimmed beard, hard lines around his eyes, and different colored pupils, it was just like looking into a mirror.

"Hello father." Noel said.


	25. Sins of the Fathers: Far From The Tree

Chapter 27: Far From The Tree

"Come on Bart. I will give away anything if you just answer right now…" Robin cursed as he pressed his cell phone to his ear. The Titans were down in the garage by now, and Cyborg was checking all the vehicles to see if Noel's supposed sabotage was more then a few torn out wires. Unfortunately, Noel thought too well: every vehicle's engine had been methodically disassembled: it would take hours to even put one back together.

Robin cursed again and hung up. Whatever Bart Allen was doing, he wasn't answering the phone. That would be his luck: of course they couldn't get ahold of the teenager who could run over to Los Angeles in the space of a few seconds and stop Noel.

For a few brief seconds, Robin considered his next possible call. Should he really call the Justice League over this? They were supposed to protect the world, not save the life of a horrible man who probably…no. As horrible and evil as he might be, Robin couldn't start deciding who deserved to live and die, at least not in a professional sense. That was what their enemies did. What they tried to stop.

And surely the Justice League would understand that. And if they didn't, Tim would add that if Noel murdered his father and revealed his secret identity in the process, the bad press about superheroes would go on for years and make their job even harder…and with that Robin put away his cell phone, flipped open his communicator, and began hailing.

"FUCK!" Cyborg cursed, as he checked the last possible vehicle that might be able to use and found that Noel had trashed it too. He'd been right: they wouldn't be able to catch up, at least not in time with what they had.

"Come on, pick up, please…" Robin said as his communicator rang and rang. Finally, the ringing stopped.

And then four quick beeps sounded on the device before the line went dead. At that sound, Robin's heart sank. To an average man (well, one that had somehow connected into the super secret line to the Justice League's systems), the beeps would mean nothing, but Robin knew what they were: codes designed by Batman and given to a few other superhero groups in case they needed help. Four beeps meant the Justice League was all out, probably dealing with a problem on the other side of the galaxy. And unfortunately at this point in time, the League consisted of only seven members.

They wouldn't be able to stop Noel.

As Robin hung up, his mind raced as he tried to think of other Speed Force users. But the only one he could think of was Jay Garrick, the first Flash, who Robin barely knew and didn't know how to contact, and Max Mercury, Bart's sometime mentor, but if Robin couldn't raise Impulse, Max was even further out of the question…

"All the cars and machines are toast. We can't use them." Cyborg reported to Robin, though he already knew.

"Damn it. Ok, what are our other options…" Robin said.

"Raven! You must teleport us there!" Starfire said. Raven had been standing in a corner, watching the four remaining Titans run around seemingly with an air of calm, but Robin knew that Raven was so used to repressing herself that even with her father dead and her free to feel that was what she was doing in response to the crisis.

"I can't." Raven replied.

"What? Raven, you must try…!"

"I CAN'T!" Raven screamed. "I can teleport a maximum of 100 miles, give or take. Los Angeles is over 3000 miles away. I'd have to train and meditate for a WEEK before I could even try moving a FOURTH of that distance. Try it now without preparing and bringing all of you? My head would explode before we'd gone a 1/20th of the distance. It's not like with the Lord; I was able to tap briefly into his power and use it to give myself the boost I needed when I warped us all to the Sahara, but even if he was here I couldn't do that again, he'd be expecting it. Without him it's even more impossible. Not even what I feel for Noel could prevent that Star. I'm sorry…I wish it was different…oh god…oh god…" Raven said, putting her face in her hands.

"Gee, it figures. We go through our everyday lives breaking all the laws of physics, but when we really NEED to do it it's all like "Oh, sorry! Unchangeable laws of time and space!" You must respect my authori-TAH! And…" Beast Boy growled.

"THAT'S IT!" Robin yelled.

"What? Dude, come on, quoting South Park hasn't become painful yet…" Beast Boy said.

"No no no! Time and SPACE! Noel may have destroyed all our cars, but I'll bet he didn't go after the T-Ship! And why would he? He was off with the flame girls when Starfire had her transformation problem, he wouldn't know we converted it for space travel!"

"Tim what…OF COURSE!" Cyborg said. "Noel had to go around the earth, but if we use the spaceship…come on guys, we may just have a chance!"

* * *

Silence. 

Which was expected, Noel supposed. His father had always had that aura of unbreakable, untouchable calm. He certainly hadn't expected his father to suddenly start cackling and twirling his closely cut mustache that was part of his beard.

No. That would have been more…acceptable.

Maxwell laid down the pen he had tapped once and crossed his fingers, regarding his son with an air of…what? Was there some surprise in there? Impossible. His father knew what Cameron had done. Surely he had expected…or maybe not something this abrupt, this open?

"Noel." His father said, not betraying anything. He could be utterly terrified that Noel had shown up with a gun or overjoyed that his oh so precious son had returned, he would not show an iota of it. His father made the Rock of Gibraltar look like a Jello Pudding Pop. "This is…unexpected."

"Oh really…" Noel said, drawing out the last syllable of the word, keeping the gun trained on his father as he slowly began stepping away from the end of the table. "You being caught unprepared? I thought that was impossible."

"I harbored that impression myself." Maxwell replied, as casually as if he discussing the weather.

Silence again.

"So, do you want to sit down or do you want to stay standing to keep up your impression of a gunfighter of some kind? You really don't fit the image Noel. I can imagine Keanu Reeves has nothing to fear. Then again…"

"SHUT. UP." Noel hissed.

"Don't be rude Noel. I taught you better then that."

"Taught me. Taught ME?" Noel said incredulously. "What in the HELL is wrong with you? You think this is some kind of family reunion?"

"Well, you HAVE been gone for…what is it? A little over two years? I guess you needed to sort through some issues after the death of your mother. I expected you come back eventually…albeit not quite in this way…"

A gunshot splintered the side of the table next to Maxwell. He didn't even blink, as he calmly turned and looked at the small hole where the bullet had gone through.

"I expect you missed on purpose. Your shooting scores were a lot higher then that."

Noel stared. Maxwell held his gaze.

"Do you even listen to yourself?" Noel said, as he slowly began to walk towards his father. "You think this is like the bible story where a father welcomed back his son after the son ran off and came back humbled by life lessons? Is that what you think this is?"

"Somewhat, but you clearly have different views. And since you are the one with the gun, you may as well share them."

"No. No. NO." Noel snarled.

"You don't want to?'

"NO, I MEAN STOP IT!" Noel screamed. "Stop acting like you care! Stop acting like you're some wise figure who wants nothing more then my best interests! Your hypocrisy is suffocating me." Noel said, his voice lowering into a tone of deep cold. "There isn't anyone else here father. The security is down. Your cronies and sycophants have fled for their lives. And no one else…"

A loud booming noise exploded from behind Noel as the C4 on the stairs blew. A slight wind and cloud of dust puffed through the open door behind Noel.

"Is going to show up." Noel said. There was a slight clicking noise as the empty clip from Noel's gun was ejected, even as he reached into his pocket and removed, inserted, and snapped in a new clip within the space of two seconds. "It's just you and me father. So why don't we have a little chat?"

* * *

"Guys, I don't know about this." Beast Boy said as he strapped himself in. 

"It's simple Beast Boy." Robin said over his mike, even as he prepared things. Talking kept his mind off the ponderings, the musings that this was all pointless, that Maxwell Collins was already lying in a pool of his own blood and Noel had blighted his soul beyond redemption. "Planes fly around the circumference of the planet. That's what Noel did. But the T-Sub's modifications have given it the capacity to leave the planet's atmosphere. But we're not going to do that. We're going to go up at a very precise angle, fly on the very outskirts of the stratosphere, and then come back down almost immediately. If we do it right, it will be like us doing a "checker jump" across the entire continent, which MIGHT just allow us to catch up to Noel in time."

"Oh." Beast Boy replied, and left it at that. Without anyone to talk to, Robin began doing math in his head. While Cyborg and the others had gone to get the T-Sub/Ship up and running, Robin had taken a brief detour and asked the computer to call up the last security footage of Noel in the tower. He had left a little under four hours ago, according to it, and while Noel might have trashed the cars, Robin doubted he, after what he had been told, had the tactical thought of altering the footage. Noel was good, but not THAT good. Or that cold.

So, Robin assumed the footage was accurate. With that, Robin could start his calculations. Four hours and roughly 3000 miles to traverse going west. Just by itself…Cyborg's T-Car Mk 2.5 had a maximum top speed of Mach 4, four times the speed of sound. It took sound roughly four and a half seconds to go a mile…and with 3000 miles and four times that speed…roughly a mile a second, 60 miles per minute…Noel could make the trip in under an hour. But Cyborg had told Robin, and most likely Noel, that the T-Car Mk 2.5 was still unfinished, so Noel probably wouldn't want to push it that hard. So assuming he stuck with a lower speed, probably no more then Mach 2, most likely less due to Noel's cautious nature…anywhere between 2 ½ and three hours. Factoring in the time zones…Noel had probably been in Los Angeles at least an hour. And counting. Robin gathered their "checker jump" would take about 30 minutes, providing nothing went wrong…

Robin thought over what Noel was like. Even pushed into an intense rage, Robin severely doubted that Noel would pull a 9/11 and just crash the T-Car Mk. 2.5 into CollinsCorp's head offices. No. He wanted to punish his father, not all the people who worked for him. Noel would try and set up something more personal. Had Noel been totally normal, that could have taken weeks, but with his metahuman abilities and all he had learned during his stint on the Titans…considerably less time.

But maybe…just long enough.

"Everything reading green here. Any deviations elsewhere?" Robin asked. His teammates all replied with "Aye." Good. Everything was set, including their…cargo. They might need it.

"Understood. Initiating launch procedure."

The T-Ship began to swing vertical even as pistons and motors turned it around and opened up the hatch above them. Robin looked over the readings to see if there were any problems. None. Good. Time to move.

"Five to mark." Robin said as he fired up the engines, even as the T-Ship completed its vertical stance and slid out the hatch and into the open air next to the T-Tower. "Five, four…"

"We are on the express elevator to hell. Going UP." Cyborg said grimly.

"Three. Two. One." Robin said as he flipped open the launch switch. "Mark."

To the people who happened to be passing on the nearby shore, it was a spectacular sight.

* * *

"You wish to speak candidly son? Very well. You are not going to shoot me." Maxwell said, as he slowly got up. 

"Oh really? And what do you base that on?" Noel said.

"Because it's not what you do. Your mother saw to that."

Noel cocked back the hammer.

"You know Noel, you really should stop looking at your mother as a saint. She had her own sins."

"Most likely, but they could never hope to TOUCH yours."

"No, I believe not. Most likely because your same distorted view of my so called sins is standing right next to the worship of your late mother."

"YOU'RE telling me I'M delusional? Who the hell do you think you are?"

"You keep saying that. I know who I am Noel. It was always you who never knew who you were." Maxwell said, as he began matching Noel's slow walk around the long board table, not out of any fear but of his eternal vigilance in watching and waiting. "I tried to teach you, but you never listened. Your mother's simplistic views, everything always in it's place. She taught you the world is always black and white. But Noel, you surely know, deep down, that this simply isn't true."

"I know what shade you are."

"Do you? How can you Noel? After all you did to defy me, block me out, content to suckle at your mother's teat. Indeed, with this little…outburst of yours, I am getting more and more of an…Oedipus impression."

If looks could kill, Maxwell Collins would have been vaporized. But somehow Noel kept his finger from squeezing the trigger and sending Maxwell Collins to hell straight then and there.

"This is a very harsh world we live in son. I wanted to give you the proper skills to survive and thrive in it. But no, no. You would rather listen to the rumors rather then see the reality. Your mother, always trying to save the world…you can't save the world Noel. You can just get into whatever position you can and ride out your time. All I wanted was for you to have one so that you could…"

"You never wanted ANYTHING FOR ME!" Noel yelled. "You wanted a clone of you to continue on your life!"

"Well my son…who says that is a bad thing?"

"You're a MONSTER."

"No Noel. I'm a man. A man who saw what he wanted and took it before someone else did. That's all it is Noel."

Noel ground his teeth so hard his jaw ached. He felt like fire was starting to flow through his veins. If he were cut, he would not be surprised if his blood began to eat into the floor like a famous movie monster.

"Noel, stop pretending. You'll never shoot me, no matter how much you want to act out the little rage fantasies that your mother implanted in you. You never had the steel to even let a bad employee go, much less kill a man. You were the type to run away and sit in your corner while you plotted and stewed. Which is what you did in the end. Ran away." Maxwell said. "Yet you came back. Despite all your so-called odium, you have returned. If you really wanted nothing to do with me, you would have stayed gone. I tried to find you, but you had vanished quite effectively. If you truly hated me, who I am, what I seemingly represent in my attempts to make a good life for myself, and your mother, and you, you would have gone someplace and died in obscurity. But you didn't. You came back here. And not to kill me Noel. The truth is, as much as you profess to hate me, deep down you know I'm right. You know that this is what you were meant for, no matter how much you supposedly abhor it."

Noel said nothing.

"Come on Noel. Put the gun down. You're a man now. You and I can finally see each other on a level that was impossible during the chaos of growing up. Let me show you the truth behind all the lies and falseness. Before you commit yourself to destroying me, at least understand what you want to destroy. I promise you…things will be so much clearer."

Again, nothing.

"Put the gun down. Son."

Silence.

And then Noel lowered the gun and tossed it aside.

"That's my boy…" Maxwell said, looking pleased. "As much as part of you claims otherwise, I think you will find you made the right choice."

"That's impossible." Noel said.

Confusion crossed Maxwell's brow.

"You know…you really missed your calling Dad. You should have been an actor. You'd have a shelf full of Oscars for this little performance."

"What are you talking about Noel?"

"Oh I don't know Dad…" Noel said as he put his hand to his chin in an exaggerated thinking motion. "I bust in here after two years gone, during which you somehow, despite all the resources, favors, and likewise at your command, have not an inkling where I am, where no one called in with sightings of me, as if I had vanished into thin air…"

"I figured you may have left the country…"

"Sure, fine. Ok then, on top of that let's point out how I basically left with the clothes on my back, and yet when I return I appear to be in grand health with nice new clothes, despite god knows how long I would have to spend fighting and clawing to make a living without you detecting where I am…"

"I taught you well, I assumed you found ways to survive, you were always very intelligent Noel…"

"Oh, compliments now, huh? Gee, if you were trying to find an argument against mine that you're just putting on a performance…THAT WASN'T IT." Noel growled. "So cut the shit Dad. I know the truth. Cameron told me before your will caught up to him."

"Cameron?" Maxwell said, and the look he gave Noel sent chills to his very core: he honestly, genuinely looked bewildered. "Cameron went on vacation four days ago. How could…"

"Oh, he's on vacation, all right. A very LONG vacation. Say, till the END OF TIME." Noel hissed.

"…My god, you didn't murder him first, did you Noel?"

The words hung in the air for a second, before they plunged straight into Noel's being.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Noel screamed, slamming his hands on the table. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU! How can you stand there, knowing all you've done, and not think that even the slightest, smallest bit of it was wrong? How can you sit there, with all you've destroyed and contaminated and all you still plan to do, and not feel the slightest twinge of guilt, regret, remorse, or even ANYTHING? What the hell are you? A demon? Something from beyond our realm that can touch such levels of malevolence? You can't be a human! YOU CAN'T!"

"Noel, calm down…" Maxwell said, finally backing up a bit. "Have you been using drugs? I think you're having paranoid delusions…"

"Are you a MAN!"

"Noel…yes. I'm a man." Maxwell said plainly.

Abruptly it was gone, the rage suddenly disappearing, as Noel leaned back up, putting his hands over his face. He made a slight noise that Maxwell couldn't identify, but some people could. It was a noise made by people when they realize that they are totally and irrevocably doomed. It came from prisoners just before the electric chair was turned on. It came from Jewish people just before the first breath of gas entered their lungs. It came from every torture chamber ever run by every dictator and every soldier who realized that they were not going to die in bed of old age but by violence on some godforsaken rock.

It was the sound of hope dying.

"Then so be it…" Noel said, lowering his hands and regarding his father with a look of intensity that made his previous one look like the bleary gaze of a drunkard. "I know what I have to do."

"Noel…let me…"

"No father. No more doing. For you, or for me. In fact, why you don't you do me a favor and drop the act. It's getting tiresome. I know what you did. I know you destroyed my mother, and when that wasn't enough, that you murdered her."

"Noel, your mother died of cancer…"

"I know what you had planned for my friends, the only people in my life who ever cared for me…"

"What friends…"

"And I know, that you know, who I am, and that is why I don't need a gun."

"Noel…what are you talking about?"

A gigantic flash of light suddenly blinded Maxwell, and he recoiled and hunched over, spears of color stabbing behind his closed lids. But he heard his son speak.

"You're right Dad. I can't kill you."

Trying to blink away the blindness, wondering what the hell had just happened, on top of all that had, Maxwell Collins looked up, rubbed his eyes, and blinked away the blurriness.

And stared at where his son had been, replaced by the white-haired and garbed Savior.

"But I can." Noel finished.

"What the…who the hell are you?"

"I know what I'm not. I'm not your son." Noel said, taking a step forward.

"What happened to my son?"

Noel screamed, and suddenly the Shimmer lashed out, slamming into the business table as the shards smashed through it. Maxwell recoiled as wood shards and splinters flew through the air, even as Noel picked up the table and hurled it to the side, smashing through the window with a gigantic crashing noise. People on the lower floors yelled and screamed in surprise as the wrecked desk and glass shards plummeted to earth…and crashed into the empty space at the foot of the building that Noel had roped off with crime scene tape he had "borrowed" from a police station before he had headed over here. He had thought something like this might have happened, and planned ahead.

"Take a look, DAD." Noel said, walking towards Maxwell and spreading his arms.

"Noel…is that you?" Maxwell replied.

"You know damn well it's me. You know everything!"

"Noel…I honestly don't know what you're talking about…"

"STOP LYING GODDAMNIT!" Noel roared. "You know this is me! You know what happened! Take one dousing of paint, add a few dashes of SXZ-12, sprinkle with a billion to one odds…and you have one metahuman!"

"Wha…huh…?" Maxwell said.

Noel could barely believe it. He knew his father was good, but THIS good?

Then again, why wouldn't he be? He sat in his office and ordered the suffering of heavens knows how many people and thought it was the way it was. He married a woman to break her, lobotomized her when he couldn't, and then slowly murdered her over the course of years and then sat and spoke of the flaws she possessed that forced him to do what he did. Who always had to have things go his way in victory, even if it meant committing atrocity after atrocity until they somehow all blurred together and became something else, and thinking…hey, that's the way things went.

Many people would rather have their perception of reality then true reality, but those people eventually broke if true reality bore down hard enough. But Maxwell Collins would never break…because he thought his perception WAS reality.

A reality that wouldn't be erased, or corrected, or stopped. There was only one solution.

Burn it down.

The Shimmer shot out again, zipping past Maxwell as the ends tore into the beautifully carved wooden walls and tore through them, reducing painstakingly crafted designs to kindling. Maxwell recoiled and retreated from the storm of wood. Noel didn't pursue: rather he just turned to face him and aimed his other arm at the other wall as the Shimmer shot out again and repeated it's precious action.

"You sit here and think you command power. You sit here and think that when you tell the world to jump, it promptly asks how high. You sit here and destroy lives and call it victory." Noel said.

He took a step towards his father, and the Shimmer lines recoiled and then smashed back against each wall, smashing them to pieces and showering the whole room with wooden debris. Maxwell recoiled again, turning around slightly and realizing he was trapped. One direction offered the empty space that Noel had created when he had thrown the desk through the window, and the other one offered Noel himself.

The devil and the deep open air.

"And you wanted that for me. For you. You wanted me to become you. You wanted me to be your legacy, your future, you. You wanted eternal power." Noel said. "I didn't want it then, and I don't want it now. I have power now. More power then you could ever have. And I decide what to do with it."

Maxwell looked at Savior, then back at the broken window, and then back at Noel.

There was no sudden outburst of anger, the rot that lay deep within Maxwell Collins' soul suddenly imposing itself on his features. There was no breaking down into begging or tears as the falseness of one's might was exposed as just that. There was no attempt at bribery, or forgiveness, or understanding, or anything even remotely redeemable.

Instead, Maxwell Collins turned back to Noel…and then the alarm that had pervaded his features faded, as he brushed his suit off, checked his cuff links, and then stood up straight and looked Noel straight in the eye.

"And what might that be?" Maxwell said.

The Shimmer lashed out in a low arc, catching Maxwell on his ankles and throwing him up and into the air like he had slipped badly on ice, as he crashed down on the glass and wood covered floor.

"To accomplish what the world couldn't. Your fall."

Maxwell coughed, and then started to get up, slowly, his body not used to being touched like that. But Noel wasn't looking at him though. Instead, as the Shimmer strand he had used returned to him, it wrapped around him, coiling up and down his body before the end slid up around the back of his neck and over his right shoulder. It twisted a bit so that the end was pointing at Noel's ear.

And then Noel turned his head towards it, looking at the end as if it were the head of a snake, his eyes softening, just a bit, as if he were looking at an old friend. And as strange as it seemed, the end of the line seemed to look right back at him.

"I don't know if there's anything in there. Or if there ever was." Noel said, looking at his power, his ability that might have possessed a small bit of intelligence, awareness, a tiny bit of existence all its own. "I don't know why you were born, or why you serve and protect me. I don't know if this is what you wanted me to do. If you want to leave afterward and never return, I'll accept that. But all I ask you, now and ever, is to stay with me now, and carry out one final task."

Maxwell was on his feet now, and Noel turned to look back at him. And as if a mirror were perched on his shoulder, the end of the line did the same thing, possessing no eyes yet still somehow SEEING.

"DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE."

The line blasted out as if all the spirits of snakes and predators past had possessed it with one sole purpose: make this blow one to be remembered.

And it was, as the line caught Maxwell Collins right between the eyes and threw him backwards, his limbs stretching out at the impact before he came crashing back down on his back, just before the edge of the broken window, with a loud, low thud.

The Shimmer turned and headed back, wrapping itself around Noel…almost as if it was giving him a hug.

Goodbye.

And in a way, it was, as the line passed through his clothing and was reabsorbed back into his body. After this, there wouldn't be any more Noel Collins, or Savior. He'd be a number on a jersey, locked away in some dank pit before the world rotted his evil genetics away.

After today, he'd have paid for his own sins. His father's sins.

Noel started walking, heading for his father, who was making a few motions as his body tried to recover from the blow.

"You know, you mentioned Oedipus. How fitting, in a way…" Noel said as he walked over. "I can't marry my mother, because she's dead, and I can't blind myself by shoving needles through my eyes, because my little friend here regenerates nerve tissue and hence they'd just grow back…but there's still the first part of Freud's favorite legend's prophecy, and I can do. It's why I was put on this earth."

Noel knelt down next to his father, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and yanking him up, looking into his father's eyes once more.

And as close as this, Noel realized that while his features mirrored those of the man he had come here to destroy…he had his mother's eyes.

He hoped she was watching.

"I have something for you father." Noel said, as he raised his right arm and the Shimmer flowed out again, forming into a cruel looking tool.

But nothing could match the cruelty that was suddenly unleashed when Maxwell, his eyes finally clearing, returned his son's look, and Noel could finally see it: the pit, the same pit he had seen in the eyes of the Joker, that abyss that Maxwell had hidden his whole life behind his poise, control and so called perfection before Noel had smashed through it, revealing Maxwell for what he was, something no man or woman had ever seen before or ever would.

As Noel shoved his arm forward and jammed the prongs of the Shimmer-weapon straight into his father's face, the lines shooting up through his nasal cavity and reaching deep into his brain, linking the two, and for a brief moment Noel got a glimpse of the deep chasm within, yawning open to consume Noel.

Before he found something to fill it, as the link was completed and Noel, perhaps inspired by something he had seen an eternity ago, let his father have it.

The pit slammed shut as sudden shock and horror filled Maxwell's eyes. He opened his mouth but nothing came out but a low nasal moan as Noel fired everything he had kept locked up for years into his father's brain and being, every single bit of pain, resentment, anger, and hate that his father had bred in him, and most of all, every bit of pain and misery his mother had shouldered after his father had cursed her with her burden, which she had borne all the way to her death, with nothing but good intentions for others and a smile.

"THIS IS YOUR LEGACY FATHER." Noel hissed as he continued slamming the data into Maxwell's brain, overwhelming his senses and scrambling the neurons as they were bombarded by agony. "Every single drop of pain, anguish, and torment that you inflicted on me, and my mother. I don't want it anymore. TAKE IT! EMBRACE IT! LOVE IT! **_CHOKE ON IT!"_**

The Birdarang slammed into the side of Noel's head.

The connection was abruptly severed as the Shimmer instinctively reverted to its main task: protecting its host, as the force of the blow to his head threw Noel sideways. The Shimmer pulled out of Maxwell's nose with a spurt of blood and an agonized gasp from the man as Noel, his reflexes and desires scrambled by the sudden pain, tried to get up, stumbled, and fought the darkness as the blow threatened to plunge him into unconsciousness. But Noel refused to go, digging in his metaphorical heels and refusing to be knocked out, the Shimmer aiding him as it retreated into it's base, the nervous system, and began firing neurons and forming connections to keep Noel conscious.

Unfortunately, it was so busy doing this that it couldn't much help Noel with his balance, as he stumbled sideways, and then fell out through the broken window, gravity seizing him immediately and drawing Noel to her bosom.

"NOEL!" Starfire yelled, as she watched her companion fall. She would have flown to his rescue, but Robin stopped her.

"He'll be ok. You are not going down there alone." Robin said, letting the message behind his words speak for itself. Starfire looked unhappy, but she soldiered up and didn't fly after Noel, as Robin ran over to Maxwell Collins. If anything Noel had said was true, Robin would have tossed him out the window after Noel, but Robin had been over that ground before, so instead he knelt and checked for a pulse. He got one, and though it wasn't strong, it was steady enough. Enough for the Titans to deal with more serious business.

Maxwell Collins would live, for now anyway, and whatever he had interrupted Noel doing, Robin didn't think he could help the man with it.

Nor did he really want to, as he signaled to Raven.

* * *

Considering that Noel was on the 77th floor, that there was twelve feet per floor, and the gravity acceleration of 32 feet per second per second, Savior had roughly seven and a half seconds before he was turned into street pizza. 

Fortunately, the Shimmer kicked in after three, lancing out lines and trying to grab a hold of the steel and glass structure. All it really succeeded in doing was smashing more windows and cutting itself up…and that proved to be the key as that agonizing pain woke Noel up just before he was about to hit, and his hundreds of hours of training kicked in as he spun around and coiled the Shimmer under him like a spring, at a precise angle.

He came crashing down among the wooden wreckage and bounced off the ground like a smooth stone skipping over a pond, as the glass barely missed cutting him to ribbons, spinning through the air like an out of control trapeze artist as the Shimmer bounced him off the ground once again and then he hit it himself, rolling and tumbling along the hard concrete that would have broken most of his bones if it had not been for, once again, the Shimmer, which righted him for the last bounce which he turned into a flip, landing on one knee, hard, as the last of kinetic energy was bled away.

For a moment he knelt there, staring at the ground. _No. No. NO. NO._

He pushed himself up, hoping…

Too late.

The Teen Titans were in front of him, no doubt teleported down by Raven.

Somehow, he had known this would happen. And it broke his heart.

Because he had to do what needed to be done.

"Noel…listen to me…" Robin said, keeping his hands, trying to be as non-threatening as possible, not wanting to set Noel off. He had to hear the truth about the situation.

"Kill me." Noel said quietly.

"What?" Robin said.

"Kill me." Noel said louder, as a look of intense fury and hate came over his face. It wasn't directed at the Titans as much as it was at the fact that they were getting in his way of doing what was necessary, but it chilled them all the same that Noel had been keeping this kind of darkness locked inside him for so long, darkness that was now running wild.

"Noel…we will never do that." Robin said.

"Then stand aside." Noel growled.

"Noel…please…listen…as our friend…you must…" Starfire begged.

"I'm sorry Kory. I wish I could…oh god I wish…" Noel said, putting his face into his hands again. "But I can't. No more talking, no more debating, no more rationalizing or delaying. I have to do this."

"No you don't man! That wasn't…!" Cyborg began.

"SHUT UP AND MOVE, OR KILL ME!" Noel bellowed.

"Noel, please! If we mean anything to you, listen to us!" Robin yelled.

"No. Listen to me Robin. To paraphrase the Marquis De Sade, kill me now or accept what I have to do, because I'll be damned if I EVER CHANGE!"

For a moment, there was silence, as the teenager known as Noel Collins and the team that had accepted him as one of their own stared at each other.

"We will not kill you Noel. No matter what." Robin said.

Noel didn't reply, but the words seemed to cause him to wilt, like a flower under the intense heat of a desert. He brought his hand to his face, and then down to his side.

A pause that lasted forever.

Then his hand balled into a fist.

"THEN STAND ASIDE!"

And he launched himself at his team.


	26. Sins of the Fathers: Nature and Nurture

Chapter 28: Nature/Nurture

_Time flows like a river, and history repeats…_

Shortly after joining the Titans, Noel had challenged Robin to a fight, not out of any macho nonsense but because he wanted to be tempered as quickly as possible for the life he had chosen for himself. Noel had refused to use the Shimmer, and at that point had had very little combat experience, and the end result was Robin kicking seven shades of shit out of Noel, which had caused problems later…

_Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it…_

When Jack Djinn had framed Noel for his murders, the Titans had gone after him with great intensity and beaten him down within a minute. But at that time, they had been riding high on a wave of righteous rage at Noel's so called betrayal, and Noel hadn't been expecting anything, which had worked against him and assured his swift defeat…

_History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, and the second time…as farce…_

But this time was different.

Ever since the Titans had found Cameron Mansfield's body and read Noel's letter, they had been on the move, zapping from task to task to try and get ahead of time's cruel grip. It had been an all-consuming undertaking, one that they hadn't been able to prepare for, unlike the last time…

The only one who could have really prepared was Robin, and even he could not have guessed at the fury and determination that was driving Noel, and what it drove him to do.

Robin might have some idea…

But things were changing…

As Robin had never even fathomed that Noel would go after Raven first.

And neither did Raven, as Noel leapt at her, his hands shooting out as a myriad of Shimmer lines flew at her, hundreds of them. Usually Noel used one long strand, but this time he had gone for quantity and divided his talent into dozens and dozens of wire thin lines that lanced out towards Raven, even as her eyes filled with shock.

Raven couldn't raise a defense.

Which was a good thing, as the lines abruptly changed direction, veering away from Raven and thrusting out amongst the scattering group of Titans as they tried to defend themselves against Noel's attack.

But Noel had had too much time. Too much time to think, to prepare, to watch them and know their strengths and weaknesses. And too much drive to let his feelings for his team get in the way for what had to be done.

The lines went for Beast Boy, wrapping around and darting around him, overloading his brain with data and slowing his reaction that would have let him transform into a form that could handle the attack. And that was all Noel needed to shove a few lines into Gar Logan's head and do the equivalent of tapping on a small section of his brain. Beast Boy's vision suddenly went black as he passed out abruptly, almost as if he had dozed off for a nap.

And that was just the beginning, as Noel didn't even hesitate in the slightest as he turned, more Shimmer strands firing out of his legs and half-throwing him to his next target.

Starfire.

The alien gasped, even as the lines flew back into Noel's body, like a snake coiling back for his next strike, even as the other Titans tried to mount a defense.

Noel raised his hands, as the Shimmer shot out from his palms…

And right into the ground as Noel thrust his arms down, firing the lines into the pavement, even as everyone goggled at this sudden change before realizing, too late, it was another feint…

As the lines exploded out of the ground behind Cyborg, piercing through the exact places needed on his back. Robin had known how to shut Cyborg down. And so did Noel. He remembered things like that.

Cyborg fell forward onto his face, not even able to get off a complaint, even as the lines that had burrowed under Cyborg pulled themselves out from beneath the street like demonic earthworms and coiled under Noel, throwing him up and towards Starfire, who had instinctively flown upward to try and get away. She had instinctively done this to get a good bead on Noel, but no sooner had the conscious desire to actually fire on him bloomed that it slammed into her feelings. True, Noel was too much of a stuffed shirt and a sourpuss too often, but he was still her friend, a friend that didn't understand, and for a moment she couldn't…

And that was all the time Noel needed to get up and flip over her, even as Shimmer lines grabbed Starfire around her shoulders. She gasped.

"Please don't hate me." Noel whispered.

And he whirled and hurled Starfire back down at the ground. He knew how tough she was, and how hard it was to knock her out. Hence, a very strong impact would be needed, and Noel, as much as it hurt him to do this to the sweet, innocent Kory Anders, knew how to provide one: throwing her ten feet into the ground. Headfirst.

The pavement shattered from the impact, as Starfire bounced slightly from the collision and then lay still, blood leaking from her temple.

Noel landed.

And a Birdarang cut through a Shimmer line, as Robin finally realized just how out of control Noel was and what measures needed to be taken, even as he withdrew another Birdarang that he'd give Noel a concussion with if he had to…

Noel turned and leapt at Robin, and Robin's eyes widened. This was impossible. Cutting the Shimmer caused such an agonizing pain to run through Noel that he was momentarily paralyzed…except that Noel was in such a furious state that the pain had merely acted as fuel as he turned and went after his leader, Shimmer lines spraying from him, Robin trying to fend them off, but they were everywhere, grabbing the Birdarang from his hand, yanking off his utility belt, pulling at his cape and coiling around his boots, all of them acting as one to keep his brain inundated with data and not able to sort it all out before it was…

Too late, as Noel zipped in and, with a move that Robin had taught him himself, slammed his point and middle fingers into a precise pressure point on Robin's neck. Robin's body spasmed and then went limp as he passed out, his brain screaming all the way down…

Raven couldn't believe it. In ten seconds, Noel had disabled all four of her teammates.

And even as Robin fell, the Shimmer lines uncoiling from around him, Noel turned to Raven, looking at her with eyes that didn't hold an iota of love or remorse, but rather the cold gaze of a man on a mission that had to be accomplished, no matter the cost.

Noel lanced at her.

And Raven disappeared into the shadows, Noel flying through the thin air where she had just been.

Raven reappeared twenty feet off the ground, trying to think of a plan, a way to get Noel to listen, hell, any move at all, as Noel wasn't hesitating in the slightest as he continued his failed charge at the wall behind where Raven had been, the Shimmer lancing out and sinking into the brick before it hurled Noel upward at an angle at Raven. Raven gasped and flew up, Noel missing her again, but Noel just ricocheted off the other wall behind her and the Shimmer threw him up again. Raven watched with wide eyes as she flew up between the buildings and Noel ping-ponged up after her.

And she realized he'd chase her until he caught her, and put her down, however lovingly and gentle he might do it, so he could go back up to the office and…and…

No. She couldn't let him do it. And since he wasn't going to stand by and hear the truth, she had to take action…no matter how much it hurt…both of them…

She veered left over onto the roof of one of the buildings Noel was using to follow her, raising her arms as her hands and eyes glowed with dark energy, for the first time hating the words she had to speak.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos…"

Noel exploded over the edge.

And Raven hurled every single loose object she had found at him in a clustered pack.

The Shimmer tore through the mass, seemingly without effort, as Noel continued his trip downward, directly at her, rearing back one fist and pistoning a Shimmer-bludgeon at her.

Raven raised her arms, and a dark energy shield surrounded her, but with the backlash in her head when Noel struck it, it may as well not have been there at all. Had he really been planning to strike her that hard? No…he was probably going to hit the ground, throw up dust…

Until Noel smashed the Shimmer into the shield again, forcing another backlash of pain that made Raven's head feel like someone was taking a drill to it.

And again, and again, as Noel furiously whaled on the barrier, trying to get through it so he could take care…

Of…

What the hell was he doing? He wanted to knock Raven out, and here he was…

Noel jumped back as the shield failed and Raven lowered her arms, and the two looked at each other.

Silence.

Then Noel grabbed his head and emitted a low growling scream as his anger came roaring back, screaming in his head to do what was necessary, even if he had to go through Raven. He had to make his father pay. He had to rid the world of his taint. He had to avenge his mother. He had to DO WHAT WAS NEEDED…

"Noel…please…listen…I love you…please…" Raven said.

Noel lowered his hands, staring at them. Blood was on his hands, or would be. There was no other option. Either the blood of his father…or the blood of the world…no other way…

"I love you too Raven…"

Twin tears leaked from Noel's eyes.

"But that's not enough."

Noel curled his hands into fists again.

"Do it." He said.

Raven knew what he meant.

But she couldn't.

"Noel…" she said, looking down.

"DO IT!"

Noel lanced at the woman he loved, the woman that couldn't save him, the woman whose hand he was going to have to force.

Raven's head snapped up, and you could see the terrible pain in her eyes for the brief moment before they glowed black and she thrust out a hand.

The psychic bolt slammed into Noel with the force of a runaway freight train, sending him flying backwards so fast he nearly broke the sound barrier. He flew off the roof and crashed through the wall of the building behind him, going straight through and exploding out the other end as gravity seized him again.

On the other side of the building Noel had gone through was an abandoned warehouse that had once been used to hold product for the company that had once been in the building Noel had just left a hole in. But that company had moved out, and the new one had no such need for the warehouse, so it had been boarded up with plans to tear it down, but one thing or another had kept it around for several years, to the point where it was almost ready to fall down on its own.

Noel crashed through the ceiling, falling to the floor beneath it in a hail of rotten wood and ancient birds' nests. The floor impact probably would have killed him, except it too was soft with rot and neglect, and Noel went through it as well, crashing down into the basement under a storm of debris.

Silence.

Noel's eyes fluttered open, and then blood ran from a scalp wound into them, the stinging pain pulling Noel back from the darkness that had overwhelmed him, forcing him to attack his friends…why did it have to be this way? Why did he have to…

Darkness…

Wait…

This warehouse was clearly long abandoned…so why…was there enough light in the basement for him to see?

Noel blinked, and then slowly pulled himself to his knees, trying to fight off the pain he felt, both physically and emotionally, as he looked around and saw…

A work table…

Several computers…and monitors…that were showing the Tower…and CollinsCorp…

Confusion hit Noel like a physical blow. What was going on? If he had a little less sense, he would have thought that maybe he was having a nightmare and it had veered into surrealism…except he'd tried to wake up when this whole thing had started and found that this was cold hard reality…

At least, that was what Noel thought, until he turned around…and saw Cameron Mansfield.

The shock hit him like a punch to the gut, as he gasped and recoiled back, sitting down on his rear as he stared in wide eyed horror at the man he had just seen die a few hours ago.

Cameron stared right back, his eyes as wide as saucers at this sudden appearance of Savior, his mouth making muffled sounds around the gag tied around it, his body firmly lashed to a chair.

Noel's mind fractured as he tried to comprehend what was going on. He was fighting his friends, his father's aide came to him and died and then was here tied in a chair…his father seemingly had no idea where he had come from or how Noel had special powers…what was going on…

And as the black and white decisions that Noel had dedicated himself to for this task suddenly shifted and merged until they all seemed to blend together, Noel heard a voice.

"Once again…the best laid plans o' mice and men are ever to be led astray…"

A familiar voice.

Noel turned his head as the figure stepped from the shadows, a figure garbed in blackish-blue and orange, with an aged but strong face missing an eye looking down on Noel as he sat there amid the wreckage.

"Hello Collins." Slade said.


	27. Sins of the Fathers: Visit Upon The Sons

Chapter 29: Visited Upon The Sons

Writer's Note: This final chapter originally had a song, but as you know we can't use songs any more, so I was forced to alter the ending and use a short song I composed myself. If anyone would like to see the way the story originally ended, just e-mail me to ask.

* * *

It had been a long, difficult plan, and waiting for the precise moments and details to come into play had taxed even Slade Wilson's considerable patience. But he could not lived as long and been as successful as he was without the immense amount of talent he possessed, and part of any talent is patience. And now it was finally all coming to bear. 

From a tactics point, things had somewhat taken a turn for the worse. A quirk had brought Noel to his hiding place, and from a strategic viewpoint it would have been best if this plan had played out without any of the Titans ever realizing Slade was involved. But Slade had been fully ready in case his part in it was revealed, and it had happened…and now, he must admit, he could put into play the less advantageously but infinitely more satisfying aspect.

Slade Wilson rarely thought with his heart, and the truth was he felt things with it even more rarely. His decades of mercenary and assassination work usually only brought him brief moments of cold professional satisfaction. His relationships only inspired caring and love in the most basic, practical sense. His anger was aroused only in rare, extreme cases, and it had always been fleeting and dismissible. Slade's gift allowed him to use over 90 percent of his brain at once, and that defined the man he was: a man of the mind, not of the heart.

And then the Titans had come into his life.

And suddenly everything Slade knew was no longer working. His magnificent brain was producing failing results. Youth, and the most foolish of all things, friendship and idealism, were besting his decades of experience. And his heart…

Slade could dismiss failed plans. They may have aggrieved him, but only momentarily: he would soon come up with something new.

He had tried to make Robin his apprentice. He had failed through his underestimation of the bond the child had with his comrades. That was acceptable: Slade had lived so long in worlds where anyone could be bought, turned, or persuaded that he had forgotten that such cowardly, traitorous aspects were rarely in the realm of children. Their betrayals tended to derive from youthful stupidity, not in the vein of ruthless practicality and greed for money and power, a weakness that tended to live in older hearts. He had moved on.

He had seen a strange girl with amazing powers and an aching, terrified heart and soul. He had schemed to bring her to him and mold her into a weapon that would destroy the Titans from within. In another world, he succeeded, only to fail again at the end, once again underestimating the capacities of children that adults lacked. That failure seemed to lead to his death…and other tales. In this world though, he never got a chance to succeed. The X-Factor of a new child called Gauntlet had cut his plans off before he could even put them into play, stealing Terra from his grasp before he could properly manipulate and program her. He had moved on.

After those, and several other failed new plans, Slade had returned to an old lifelong plan that he had picked up and set aside over the decades. He had thought that this time he would finally succeed in it. In the end, all he had gotten from it was a new apprentice, now absent on another mission so Slade could do this alone. But even the power of the energy controlling teen Kurai was a very poor substitute for what Slade could have gained. But once again, the Titans had thwarted him. Indeed, that time it had seemed more like a strong option then a slight possibility.

And it was that, and how it related to the mission he had done before the most recent attempt at the lifelong plan, that had finally kept Slade Wilson from moving on. Not this time.

Because that previous mission had been about time.

Slade Wilson had originally set his sights upon the Titans because of an egregious sin they had committed early in their history. They had angered a powerful crime organization, and said organization had hired an assassin to make the Titans pay for their meddling. That assassin had been the Ravager…Slade's son, Grant. He should have made mincemeat out of the inexperienced Titans…and yet somehow, the Titans had defeated him. Not just defeated him, destroyed him. Humiliated, Grant had given up all he had worked for and all his father had secretly worked to give him, planning to just keep his head down and go quietly into life until his time had passed. In Slade Wilson's mind, such a blow and a change in his son was an atrocity on par with Auschwitz, and he himself had targeted the Titans.

And failed. And failed. And failed.

Finally, Slade had had enough. If this time seemed to belong to the Titans, Slade would alter time so it would be properly set. And hence he had built the Chronoton Destabilizer, which he would use to manipulate the flow of time and reset things to his liking.

He had failed, again. But not because of any fault on his part though.

That failure had been the direct fault of Noel "Savior" Collins, who had literally come out of nowhere after Slade had assumed he was a safe distance away and could not interfere. But Slade had assumed wrong, despite his precautions, and Noel had swooped in and wrecked everything, smashing the Destabilizer and causing it to malfunction. Instead of choosing a timeline of his liking and placing it down as the set one, Slade had found himself tossed into time's maelstrom, confronted with many situations where he had needed all his skills and wits to survive. But that was not the part that had set him on this path.

What had done that was when Slade had been dumped into the last timeline, before the device had been fixed and he and the Titans had been called back home, a timeline where Slade found himself in the minutes just before Grant had lost. Having lost his chance to correct things one way, Slade chose another, as he made his way to where his son was on the verge of losing and changed things, defeating the Titans who had defeated Grant and then immediately afterward defeating their future counterparts who had found themselves in the timeline with him. That was the way it should always have been: Slade was a living legend and they were teenage fools. The only reason they had escaped such a defeat so far was that Slade desired an elaborate destruction for them, not a quick, brief unsatisfying end, an end he could have delivered at any time. An end he had delivered there, for his son.

And though Slade never realized it, he had done his son far worse in such an action. In the correct timeline, Grant had been beaten and disgraced, but he had lived. In the timeline Slade had changed…something happened.

And Grant had died.

It did not matter that soon after Slade had been returned to the 'correct' timeline, where his son still lived, in jail. It did not matter that the Titans had left him when he had been vulnerable, instead of taking advantage and putting him in a situation that would have been most inconvenient. No.

What mattered was that he had seen Grant die. And he had seen all his barriers and professional conduct failing, falling under a storm of emotion. He had wept approximately three times in his life, and one of them had been holding his dead son, in front of the Titans, like a foolish old man rather then a master of all he surveyed.

He had tried to move on…and found he could not. For once, he could not dismiss a failure. It had been far too personal.

And it had all come about because of Noel Collins.

The boy had come out of nowhere, had "Operation Market Gardened" the plan as he might have said, and dealt Slade a blow unlike any he had had before.

And it would not be tolerated.

Most people considered Slade's Robin's enemy. And there was probably some accuracy in such an assumption: Robin had, after all, figured prominently into Slade's original plan to destroy the Titans, and in the process the two had formed the special bond that likewise foes had. But the truth was, Slade was the enemy of the Teen Titans. And for the moment, one stood above the others that had to be destroyed.

Noel Collins.

And the time had come. Slade had prepared well. Now he would drive the final daggers into Noel's heart, and then he could return to his main mission. Destroy the Titans. And so much more.

* * *

"You look surprised to see me." Slade said, as he stepped fully out of the shadows. "Surely you didn't forget about me, did you? Ah, children. Forever thinking that out of sight equals out of mind. Just one of your many foolishnesses." 

Cameron continued to make muffled yells through his gag, but Noel barely noticed. His mind suddenly seemed to be swimming in a thick gray soup. He no longer knew which way was up and which way was down any more.

"….What…" Was all he managed from where he sat on the floor.

"You have forgotten. A shame Collins. You always gave the impression of how sharp your mind was, how skilled you were at thinking. But in the end, you're still a child Collins. Life throws its first true punch at you, and you go down without a fight. Sad, really." Slade said, as he stepped up to the side of the tied Cameron Mansfield.

And Noel, despite his current mindset, noticed there was something…slightly different about Slade this time. The outfit was the same. The face was, even though it was missing its usual orange and black mask. The difference was that Slade was wearing a sheath on his back. A sheath that he was drawing a sword from, a long broadsword-esque blade.

"I thank you for your assistance Mr. Mansfield." Slade said. "Allow me to properly reward you."

Even if Noel hadn't been so dull at the time, he probably couldn't have done anything, as Slade flipped the blade in his hand and stabbed it backwards and out, ramming it into Cameron's heart with such speed it looked more like a movie skipping a frame then a human movement. Cameron's eyes went as wide as saucers, and then the life faded from them, as Slade pulled the sword back out in one swift motion and flipped it back up. Blood began to run from the wound in Cameron's chest, as Slade briefly wiped the blade on the dead man's pants.

"The fate the decoy suffered, so shall the original. Except there won't be any dragging, gasping refusal to die here child. Just a sudden plunge into the darkness. That's the way the human body works, after all. Something else you should have known."

"…Cameron…was…?"

"Cameron was a sycophant to the extreme boy. Even his best qualities were just second-rate versions of the ones your father had. Do you really think he had anything in his heart for you except what your father wanted? That he actually had enough strength of character to defy everything he had always lived for? And did you really think he could survive a shot through the body and all that came after? If you could truly think child, you would know never to judge a book by its cover. But to you, Cameron walked like a human, bled like a human, and made all the appropriate unpleasant actions of a dying human. A truly enlightened man would have made SURE that it was indeed a human you were talking to…not, say, a machine designed to specifically mimic a human. But then again, what can a child do when he's finally heard what he dearly wanted to hear for so long?"

It took a few seconds for the implication to hit Noel: he was still struggling with the fact that the Cameron who had died in his arms had not been Cameron after all, but instead…what? A machine? Slade did have some source that provided him with humanoid robots. Had he specifically designed one and placed organic flesh on it, human organs and even simulated excrement, and passed it off as Cameron? But why…

And then the implication of Slade's last sentence finally hit him.

It was a good thing he was already sitting down.

"…No…" Noel said, in a voice no one had ever heard him use before, the sound of a vengeful mind butting up against a finally realized reality…and coming to the horrifying comprehension that the two didn't match up.

"It's strange Collins." Slade said, as he stepped around Cameron's dead body, his sword held by his side, as his form again vanished into the shadows, reducing details to vague shapes and motions. "I've met your kind before. You always do the same thing. You're so certain that the world and its infinite snares, traps, and cruelties are going to try and get you in some way. So you set up walls, prepare defenses, endless numbers of them, keeping your eyes open as widely and as intently as you can, putting so much effort into trying to see whatever life has planned for you so you can stop, intercept, or at least prepare for it. And you never realize that life is far too clever for you. It's been doing this for eternity, after all, and you are just the latest defiant spark. Because in the end, life gets you anyway, and you, despite all your training, preparing, expecting, never see it coming anyway. Perfect vision never prevents blindsiding, Collins. But you never realized it. You couldn't."

"What…how…"

"Do I know your real name? Don't you know already child? Can't your ever so evolved and refined mind pluck out the reason? You believe your father to be evil incarnate. Surely you don't think that he never availed himself of my services. Surely you don't think that my brain ever forgets anything that I may one day consider important. And surely you don't think that I never heard you talk, back when you were young, and couldn't connect that voice to your face."

Noel stared in horror. Now that everything was finally revealed on the board, the pieces were coming fast and furious, each worse then the last. It hadn't been Maxwell who had figured out who Noel was by hearing his voice on the TV. He truly had had no idea that Noel had superpowers. The one who truly knew that…had been Slade…and he had used that…

"I admit, it took me some time. But you allowed me the proper motivation Collins. You murdered my son."

"…I…"

"It doesn't matter if you weren't there! You set the events in motion! You, in your juvenile attempts to be 'the good guy', committed a sin beyond all exculpation! A sin that demands far more then an eye…for an eye…for as you probably know…sometimes that rarely satisfies…" Slade said, indicating his own missing eye. "No…something more was needed. And it has come to pass. So tell me child, do you feel better now that you finally know what you know about your father? Or rather…you finally heard what you wanted to hear?"

"You didn't…"

"Did your father do those things Cameron, oh sorry, my version of Cameron, described to you? It's a possibility Noel. He certainly had the stones for it. I know that all too well. You see, in our final piece of business, he reneged on his end of the bargain, and didn't pay me what he owed. People who do such a thing are rarely long for this world, Collins. The only reason your father still lives, and your hatred for him still lies un-sated, is that, much like now, I decided death would be too merciful for the insult he paid me. But I was distracted by that plan by other things, and never got back to it…but I still had the bare bones in my head, as well as the data I had absorbed. Including your voice. Which would have been necessary in the revenge I never took. But details…no. The few times your father availed himself of my services, I only learned base things. No one ever told me the details of what happened between your father, your mother, and you. And no one probably ever could. But that didn't matter. I didn't need the truth. All I need was what you wanted to hear."

Noel was silent, though he felt like he was going to vomit as more pieces snapped into the picture.

"I see by your face your mind is finally grasping it. But since you need truth, or at least so called truth, to act on your feelings, I will give it to you. Was your mother 'fixed' and then killed by your father? Maybe. But whether it is definite, I cannot tell you. But I can tell you what was definite. That your father had any idea where you were. Or WHO you were. Your coming into the powers acted as the greatest of smokescreens, Noel. At least until now."

"No…"

"Oh its much worse then that Collins. Why are you down here? Because you turned on them. Your comrades the Titans. Your friends. Because of what I told you. Because it was what you always wanted to hear. Your father did what he did because he wanted to continue living through you Noel. And he succeeded. For the sake of what you thought was right, you destroyed everything in your path. Even after you finally found a place to be accepted, you threw it away when it finally clashed against what you truly are. The son of Maxwell Collins."

Noel was starting to shudder, as if something within him was trying to break free.

"Except you're not that either, are you child?" Slade said, as he stepped back. "You loathe your father. You loathe his mark on you. Yet you cannot escape it. It's at the heart of all your true desires. Your willingness to kill him, and attack your own team to do it, strips from you the hero title you clung to so hard. Yet at the same time you cannot stand that mark, preferring self-destruction to embracing your destiny. So you're not even a villain, or a traitor. Neither light nor shadow, but void. Nothing at all. You don't belong with the Titans, and you don't belong with the enlightened like me. You don't belong anywhere at all."

Slade stepped back into the light. On a nearby table rested his mask: Slade stepped up to it and picked it up.

"You killed my son." Slade said, as he turned back to face Noel, who sat, staring at the ground dully. "Such a sin only deserves one thing. A sin in turn. Your own sins. As deadly as the ones in theology, and more. So Collins…you have let your sins define and destroy you. Now…I shall finish the task."

And Slade snapped the mask on, concealing his face beyond the hard orange shell, and once again, Deathstroke the Terminator lived.

"I put my blade away when I first planned to confront the Titans; I did not believe they were worthy of it. You have brought it out once more. Let the final weight upon you know that it will spill their life's blood, and even then you will not have the final privilege of letting it intermingle with YOURS!"

And Deathstroke slashed the blade down.

And stopped.

It was as abrupt as if someone had blocked the blade. But no one had. The blade had been stopped by its wielder, Deathstroke, as he looked down at the bowed head of the current target of his hate.

"You do not fight back." Deathstroke said. Though he'd prepared for such a possibility, it had not been a strong one and hence had been at the back of his mind. He had expected that now that Noel knew the truth he would react like the child he was, screaming his denial, that he was a hero, Slade was the villain, and all his sins were really Slade's, the usual delusion of a being who needed that moral high ground to survive.

Except, as Noel looked up, Slade remembered what set Noel apart from the other Titans. Life had shouldered them all with burdens that had forced them to grow up too fast, but each Titan had maintained some grasp on their childhood…all except Noel. He was an old soul, bred through and through…and it showed most in his eyes.

"You're right." Noel said.

That was not what Deathstroke had expected.

"Nothing…left…b..ut one………….kill me."

Deathstroke's lone eye stared into Savior's…

And then it narrowed, as a low snarl sounded in his throat.

"Do you think me a FOOL CHILD?"

Slade slammed the flat of his sword against Noel's face, flinging Noel to the side.

"I know death child. I was a feared master of it when you were but a glint in your father's eye. Do you really think me so lacking in intelligence?" Deathstroke growled, angry at what had occurred. He had expected, and though he would never admit it, wanted furious defiance, defiance he could crush under his heel for his final satisfaction before he delivered the final punishment. He had not expected Noel to do this instead. Because he knew why Noel was doing it, and despite all he had done, the fact that Noel could still snatch a shard of hope from all this, even in such a way…

"Kill you?" Deathstroke asked, as he yanked Noel up by his hair. "You mean martyr you? Make you immortal in seeming sacrifice? Oh no child. This is not a death that will be defined on your terms, but ON MINE!"

Deathstroke slammed Noel's face into the dusty floor and then hurled him across the warehouse.

"Your breed are even stupider then those who try so hard to prepare." Deathstroke snarled again, as he headed over to Noel, his usual calm stride broken, just a tad, by the fury raging within him, a fury rarely unleashed and oh so much more terrible for it. "You look at what you've done and think you can somehow make up for it, and since you see no way to escape the hole you've made for yourself you try and redeem it all through death, to make others forget your sins by making yourself a symbol. But that will not be the case Collins. Your crime will be repaid in turn, and in far greater excess, for such is what you deserve for what you did!"

Noel had gotten to his knees, and Deathstroke slashed out a foot. It smashed against the side of Noel's face, the impact ripping open the twin cuts the sword had made (despite using the flat, the blade had been razor sharp), and Savior collapsed onto his hands and knees to the side, blood running down his face and neck, even as Deathstroke drew his foot back.

"So you do not resist, embracing your ennui, in the hopes that my strikes will deliver the end you seek because you do not properly defend against them." Deathstroke said. Though he'd never admit it, a tiny part of him was amused by such a move. It was an interesting way to solve a problem, he had to admit. But as Deathstroke had said, this was not a death Noel would define on his terms. This was his revenge, his justice, and Noel would know it all the way down into the abyss. "Well child, you fail again. A combat master is not only defined how quickly he can kill, it is defined by how much distance between this world and death's door one can make, and since you seem so fervent to embrace her, let me show you how harsh and vicious that embrace can be!"

And Deathstroke swung his foot up, striking Noel in the forehead, very precisely, delivering just enough impact to push Noel up without knocking him out or injuring his brain enough to kill him, and as Noel found himself being pushed up Deathstroke grabbed him by his hair and yanked him up with his free hand, as he twisted his blade away and drove two fingers into Noel's throat. Noel's air went out in a gasp, and he reached his hands up to claw at the injured spot, even as Deathstroke let go of his hair and delivered a precise nerve blow to Noel's shoulder, sending agony shooting down his arm. Noel stumbled to the side.

"Is this not what you desired Collins? Do you suddenly realize the true origin of these fruits I now labor to produce?" Deathstroke said, as he made with way over to Noel with scary speed and snapped his foot into Noel's leg, smashing the heel down against the muscle in a blow that would prevent a broken bone but still produce terrible pain. Noel collapsed to his hands and knees again, and Deathstroke could feel his emotions fading again, calming down to his usual state. He was not worried about interference: when Noel had come crashing in he had activated a contingent of Slade-bots to keep the Titans busy, and since Raven had been the only conscious one she had been hard pressed to defend herself and wake up her friends, let along go looking for her boyfriend. It would just be him and this stupid child, and Slade would either reawaken his rage and then crush it and the life from his body or he would make the child know a regret as large as the one that now weighed down upon him that made him choose this taking of blows. And not just physical ones, as well. If Noel wanted to seek his own destruction, Slade would do it in ways beyond his body.

"Of course, you never truly knew what you wanted, did you? Even after all this time." Deathstroke said, as he walked around an agonizing Noel. "You hated your father and desired to destroy him. But at the same time, you knew that such an action was a staple of your father's, and hence you also sought escape from such options, such desires. You seemed to find that escape in the code you adapted when you became a Titan. To act upon your deep desires would violate that code, a code that seemingly finally gave you happiness, a code you clung to desperately. And even that wasn't enough. Part of you hated that code and desired to break it for the revenge you needed so badly against your father. And once I told you what you wanted to hear, and gave you the justification that your mother had been murdered and your allies were in danger…well, we all saw what you did, so willing. I believe it was Sallust that said 'A good man will prefer to be defeated then to defeat injustice by evil means.' I guess that pretty much says it all." Deathstroke said, as he laced his hands together on the hilt of his sword and brought it down on Noel's spine. Noel's whole body spasmed in agony as Slade hit another pressure point and sent shockwaves through Noel's systems. If it was any comfort, he didn't get to feel it for long as Deathstroke lashed out a boot and kicked Noel in the stomach, driving the wind out of him again as he was rolled across the ground. He came to a stop and gasped, both for air and in torment, as tears began to leak from his eyes.

"Still you refuse to fight. Your own concept of penance defying your natural instincts. It would almost be a thing to respect if it wasn't so sad. Because despite your actions, you are still undefined. A normal man would have finally realized what he was, what he was destined to be, and given in. But you fight it, deny it, even now. And I think that it has finally realized that it cannot define you, despite what you did in its name, and how you try and make amends for it, amends that have come far too late." Deathstroke said, and with another move so swift Noel never saw it Deathstroke lashed out and crunched the heel of his boot into Noel's face, his nose breaking and sending his head and body snapping back in another spray of blood. "What good is such penance in a damned man? You tried so hard to defy your father's essence Noel, but the moment you were given an excuse you embraced it. And now for doing so you offer yourself upon the mercy of the world. The world has no mercy child, and I have even less. So tell me, WHAT ARE YOU?"

And Deathstroke threw his sword up and slammed his palm down against the prone Noel's solar plexus, striking the cluster of nerves in such a way that Noel almost didn't feel the pain: it was so intense and potent it only fired through his nerves for a second before they went numb, as if burned out. Air and bloody spittle flew out from Noel's mouth in a gasping sound that was so weak and pathetic that Deathstroke suddenly felt disgusted. This was nothing like he wanted. The boy had completely given in to his despair, let the world he had swore to hold up crush him. It was pathetic and not worthy of his time, let alone such an elaborate revenge scheme.

Then again, maybe he should have expected this, as he let his sword drop back into his hand. He had struck where Noel was weakest, with the most potent of blows. And Noel was, despite his old soul, still a chronological child. The worst of both worlds. A child's lack of experience and an adult's inability to adapt.

Well, so be it. It might not have gone absolutely perfectly, but he could still take satisfaction in what he had done here. And he wasn't above gaining a little more.

Deathstroke reached down and grabbed Noel by his bloodstained shirt, easily pulling him up so he was eye to eye with him once more. This time, there wasn't even the bleak sense of destiny that had been in the boy's eyes when Deathstroke had first swung his sword. There was nothing but a dull…nothing. Nothing at all. No sudden defiance. No excruciating pain. No spark of an epiphany, good or bad. There was nothing.

"So what are you Collins?" Deathstroke asked. "You're not the son of Maxwell Collins. And you're not a Teen Titan. You're not even a worthy adversary. Denied all these, I must ask…what are you?"

Silence, and for a moment Slade wondered if he'd misread the flatness in Noel's eyes. Maybe…

No…there was still something there, something struggling to emerge, even now trying so desperately to survive, even as Noel's mouth moved…just a bit…trying to form the syllables, as if they were all that separated him from the edge.

"I……………m………."

And for a brief moment Slade expected to hear a voice. Not Noel's voice, another, one of the Titans. Which would be joined by another, and another, until they were all there. And then they would attack, and everything would be ruined. They'd pull together and undo everything Slade had worked so hard for, just like they had before. For in the end, a good part of childhood is ignorance in what you can and can't do…

And such ignorance could be truly…awe-inspiring…

And then…silence. Nothing but, never anything but. The final hope that Slade had suddenly feared had never emerged. Not this time.

And as his lone eye flicked back to Noel's face, he saw the same thing mirrored in Noel's eyes. Where Slade had feared the voice would ruin everything, Noel had hoped that it could somehow provide him with some way out…

But there was no one, and no way. And no words Savior could speak to undo it all.

Slade had seen hope die in men's eyes before.

With this child however, it was somehow more…potent. Deathstroke smiled underneath his mask.

"Exactly." Deathstroke said. "You're nothing."

And he hurled Savior backwards, the teenager slamming against a steel column, crumbling to the ground, his back against it, not moving, not speaking, giving barely any indication that he was alive.

"We all have our sins." Deathstroke said. "It appears that you must bear not only your father's sins, but your own. And for that there is a price to pay. It's time." Slade said.

And he lunged out with the sword, aiming straight for Noel's heart…

As a black claw of power pulled itself from the girder and fired out, slamming into the sword and Slade and sending him flying backwards with a slight yell of shock.

"Not yet." Raven said, as she emerged from the shadows. She didn't know what was going on, what Slade was doing here (though it had been a quick guess after the Sladebots had jumped her when she had originally tried to do what she had done, find Noel), or how this tied into the whole mess. Her teammates had finally revived (some telepathic yelling in their head had helped) and proceeded to deal with the Slade-bots while Raven had tried to seek Noel out.

But something was wrong.

Raven could sense her teammates in various ways due to her empath powers; various parts of them combined to form what amounted to a pulse crossed with a unique essence that let Raven tell them apart. As long as she felt that pulse, her teammates were alive.

But something was wrong with Noel's. Raven had been too distracted by the Slade-bots to seek him out, and when she had found him, while whatever had been going on here had been happening…it was like the pulse had plunged. It was still there…but soft, weak, muted. And considering that she wasn't so much sensing Noel's heartbeat as she was sensing who Noel WAS…it had disturbed her when she found it, and had warped towards it…

"Savior?" Raven said, showing professionalism even in the situation as she floated over to the teenager. His body was slumped over, and she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him up to face her.

And then her heart went cold.

Noel's eyes stared ahead, not focusing on Raven, not focusing on anything. They looked far away, as if Noel was staring at some distant sight only he could see. And Raven realized the coldness wasn't just from her realization of what had happened to Noel. She was picking it up off of him. Like Noel was an emotional blank, numb and dead, with nothing inside.

"…Noel?" She said, her professionalism shattering under the fear that suddenly overwhelmed her. For a moment, she tried healing him…and realized then that this wasn't a physical wound, like a concussion or a brain injury. This was worse.

And beyond her touch.

"Noel…Noel." Raven said, shaking him. There was no response. "Noel…no…come on…you're stronger then this…come back…come back…"

A low chuckling suddenly caught Raven's ears, as she turned to face Slade. Her dark energy shove had smashed the sword he had been holding up against his mask with such impact that most of it had broken off. Slade removed the remaining bit as he stood up, looking pleased, in a dangerous way.

"More then I even thought." Slade said. "An offer of forgiveness by the one closest to him, and still nothing."

"What did you DO TO HIM?" Raven growled.

"I did nothing but confront him with who he was. A hero, a monster…we all must live with such contradictions in our hearts. And once I showed him the truth of both the sides within him…he just couldn't handle it. Crushed between the conflicting points of his nature and left an empty shell. And beyond your ability to save, it appears. To heal wounds on the body is one thing, but my fatal blow was on his soul."

Raven looked back at Noel, at his blank expression, and then turned back to Slade.

"…YOU….BASTARD."

"He brought it on himself young sorceress! He murdered my son. I could not let such a thing go unavenged!"

"HE DID NO SUCH THING!" Raven roared as she floated up. "YOU KILLED YOUR OWN SON THROUGH YOUR INTERFERENCE! YOU…!"

Raven only saw the motion in a blur, she wasn't sure what it was, and she had only begun to conceive of the notion of a counterattack when the disc bounced off the wall and slammed into the back of Raven's head at an angle, pitching her forward onto her knees as the pain broke her concentration.

"It was all wrong to begin with." Slade was saying, as Raven tried to collect herself. "He should never have lost to the likes of you. Ever since that day, things have been wrong, not going as they should, and it's high time it was back on track."

Raven's vision cleared as she realized she was looking at Slade's boots, and she looked up towards his face.

"…You think this is about your son." She found herself saying. "But you know the truth. This is no more about your son than Savior's supposed causing of his death in that echo of an existence: nothing at all. This is about YOU, Slade Wilson. Your pride, your arrogance, your inability to accept life as it has become. This was NEVER about your son. It was all about YOU."

"Hmmmm. How astute young lady." Slade said, suddenly looking thoughtful. "But isn't it always about the fathers? Your father defined you until that shattered ruin you called a lover helped take you away. His father, and my actions, have now taken him away. And now I, for my son, will see you and your fellow Titans dead. So shall the fathers sinned, so shall the sons and daughters bear it!" Slade said, and slashed his sword up. His sword was special made: a thread of Nnth Metal running through it would disrupt any magic she tried against him, and that whack on the head he'd delivered would keep her from mustering the necessary concentration to teleport…

And Slade made his final mistake: just like he'd assumed Noel would strike back at him, he assumed Raven would.

But not the way she did, as her eyes went pitch black.

"I'll show you **_SIN._**"

And then Slade Wilson froze. Completely and utterly, like time had stopped. His eye, unable to widen, bulged in shock. What the hell just happened! The sorceress couldn't do anything like this!

In another timeline, Slade knew all too well the potential that lurked within Raven. But not here, and in her anger neither had Raven until she had lashed out and briefly frozen Slade to the spot.

And that brief moment was all she needed, as shadows exploded from around Raven and consumed her and Slade, and Slade found himself looking at nothing, utter blackness, and he found he could move again but his sword was being yanked from his hand, and he yelled and cursed and thrashed but he couldn't get any leverage, any sense of where he was.

"Slade…" Raven said, with ethereal calm, her voice sounding all around him. She rarely used her greatest power, her soul-self, like this: usually it was used to strike and throw and protect. She did not immerse humans in it because of what it could do to them. Dr. Light had found that out, and that had been an uncontrolled surge of her powers. This was controlled, refined, and far greater then that.

And it also allowed her instant access into Slade's mind, as she skimmed through his entire life within seconds and finally came to the reason behind all this, just how he had manipulated Noel into what had happened, for no better reason then his own arrogance disguised as fatherly love. It awoke her wrath anew. And she knew exactly how to use it.

"They say let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Raven said, all around Slade, as she prepared to truly use her soul self. "This is why you should have kept your hand AWAY!"

And Raven plucked every death, every crime, every terrible thing Slade had done in his decades of mercenary and assassination work, and she fed it all back to him, all at once, straight into the very heart and soul of his being, showing Slade a torment beyond any and all comprehension he could have had, for like he had said, wounds on the body are nothing like wounds on the soul.

Slade screamed into the darkness, clawing at his head, trying to crack into his skull and remove the horror and suffering that Raven was besieging him with, but there was no escape, no remorse, just endless…sin. His own sin.

There is more then one kind of nothing.

Slade Wilson found that out the hard way.

* * *

The shadows flowed off the floor of the empty warehouse, revealing Slade. His body lay there, his lone eye filled with unimaginable horror, his mind somewhere else, far far away. The darkness reformed into Raven, as she looked down at her work, at her vengeance. And in it she could see what had driven Slade to do what he had done to Noel. 

The difference between him and her is that she would gladly take it all back, if Slade could do likewise.

Noel still sat there, against the pillar, as if nothing had happened. His eyes remained dead and gone, Slade's manipulations having shattered every support he could have used to stave off the darkness.

"…Noel." Raven said, as she knelt down next to him. "It's done. We understand. Come back to us."

Silence.

"Noel…please." Raven said, as she took Noel's shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. "You're not this weak. I always knew that. Now know it yourself. COME. BACK."

Raven looked deep into Noel's eyes, remembering a happier, more intimate time, and all she had seen in there.

…And now it was gone. All gone. Even she couldn't bring it back. And if the case was that severe, she couldn't go any deeper into his mind, or she would risk being lost in it herself.

"…Noel…" Raven said, lowering her head. "Oh Noel…"

And then, lacking anything else she could do, she took his limp hand and pressed the back of it against her forehead, closing her eyes and hoping for a miracle.

And knowing none was coming. The only one who could save Noel was himself…and he was lost so badly…

He hadn't deserved this, but then again, very few who suffer under the weigh of sin do.

She did not cry, though she felt pain. But this was not the kind of pain that caused or deserved crying. There was too much else mixed into it. Anger, against the now comatose Slade and at Noel himself, for hiding these feelings from everyone, including her, and then letting himself be strung along instead of turning to his team, his family, for help, disappointment in that same vein, and loss, of her own and Noel…

And even as she heard Cyborg and Starfire blasting a door open behind her, and heard Robin yelling and asking what the hell was going on, and even as they stopped and stared at Slade on the floor, and then Raven and Noel…she felt one last thing.

Hope.

Hope she willed to him, hope that he had needed.

Hope that had come too late.

Hope that remained unanswered.

* * *

Robin saw their impertinence with new eyes, and for once he understood why the media had so greatly angered Noel, an anger he now felt himself. But he reined it in. Even with what had happened, certain practicalities had to be done, or else the problem would just multiply. 

So Robin waved his hand up on the podium he was standing on, with all the core Titans, the original five. They all looked solemn and sad, even as Robin grimly looked at the quieting hordes of reporters. Vultures, all of them. But they had to be fed, at least this time.

"I am Robin, of the Teen Titans, normally out of Jump City in Florida. I am here to give a statement and answer a few questions about the events that occured yesterday. And I will point out that we really don't have time for this so if anyone asks a stupid question we are out of here." Robin said. He took a breath, and then began the cover story.

"We came here on a lead that our enemy, Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke the Terminator, was plotting something. That plot appeared to be an attack on Maxwell Collins, CEO of CollinsCorp, utilizing a robot dummy of his missing son, Noel. The robot was extremely lifelike and fooled even the scanners, as the police will tell you, as we have turned the robot over to them for examination."

In reality, said robot had been the false avatar of Cameron Mansfield, the truth of which Cyborg had discovered when he, lacking anything to do until Robin came up with a plan to help/deal with Noel back at the tower, had decided to further examine the seeming dead body of the man, with eyes that could do far more with a scan then a normal human being could. That discovery had been the key to the Titans realizing there was more to this then what Noel said or knew, the details of which they now also knew, due to Raven. It hadn't been hard to make the switch on the robot: one eyewitness report had allowed Robin to properly switch the clothes, and Starfire had quickly fried the face and head of the Cameron construct and then claimed she had done it in the course of battling the robot. No one suspected the sweet-faced alien of lying, or of doing anything in the vein of covering up a possible resemblance, or lack thereof.

"Exactly why Mr. Wilson went about this and why is not yet known. It is theorized it could be an unsettled grudge over money, or perhaps a bribery scheme. We have not yet been able to determine the exact motive, as Mr. Wilson has been unable to tell us…"

Because he was lying in a coma, his brain thoroughly fried by Raven…

"We do know that in the process of it, Slade Wilson kidnapped Cameron Mansfield, Maxwell Collins' right hand man, and when the plan began to unravel Mr. Wilson murdered him, perhaps to escape identification. The robot duplicate of Mr. Collins' son either was meant to attack Mr. Collins or went rogue, for we were forced to intercede and stop the attack. Mr. Collins is currently in guarded condition in a hospital, and he is expected to make a full recovery." Robin said, grinding out the last sentence like it was the dirtiest of curses. "Mr. Wilson was severely injured in his attempt to escape and is now being treated in an unknown location after being taken into custody. That is all we know at this time. Are there any questions, and no yelling!"

Robin's snap at the end only muted the reporters somewhat, as Robin tried to resist the urge to tell them where to get off and leave. But he had promised, to make sure this cover story stuck, to answer a few questions, as he picked one out.

"Excuse me Mr. Robin, you are saying that Slade Wilson built a lifelike robot that was, how did you say, 'equipped' with organic coverings and even innards, that happened to resemble Mr. Collins' missing son, for some unknown purpose? How do we know that it wasn't really, I don't know, his actual son?"

Robin gritted his teeth.

"The actual form of the robot under the disguise was seen only by Mr. Collins and ourselves before we were forced to severely damage it to stop it. As you can read in the report, the room in which Mr. Collins was attacked was also severely damaged, far more then what was capable of a handgun that the witnesses who saw the robot double while escaping saw in his possession. The damage was the result of the robot's running amok, and is beyond anything a normal human was capable of."

"And why were you here?" Another one asked.

"We got a lead that our enemy, Slade Wilson, was, and we acted on it."

"Without questioning it?"

"We have VERY good sources." Robin growled. The reporters got the message to back off.

"Why was Slade doing this again?"

"Slade Wilson's exact motivations are unknown, as we only have outside details. Once Mr. Wilson has recovered, we will see if any more details of this plan and attack can be gleaned from him."

Which could very well be never because of how badly Raven had screwed with his head. Of the three doctors who had examined him, two had stated the opinion that he would never wake up. Robin took that with a grain of salt, but there was no denying that for now Slade was out of their hair.

But the cost for such a thing had been too high.

"So…if this was a duplicate of Noel Collins…where is the real one?" A reporter was asking.

There was a brief pause, and then Robin sighed.

"That is knowledge we do not have. Noel Collins is somewhere…but we don't know where it is."

* * *

"What about Maxwell?" Batman said in the brooding, semi-nasty way he spoke when he was irritated about possible loose ends. "You may have tried to pass off the Cameron duplicate as Noel, but Maxwell knows the truth about what happened." 

"No he doesn't." Robin replied, his tone irritated. It had been a long flight back to the tower, then more unpleasantness, not to mention the team was still digesting the events of the past few days, and now his mentor was interrogating him on the Teen Titans' main computer. As much as Robin respected the man who taught him, he didn't need or want this, and he was one step away from saying that to Bruce's face. "Raven checked. We managed to stop Noel before Maxwell was killed by his Shimmer technique, but Maxwell's brain was still scrambled, at least a bit. Raven did three evaluations and staked her life on the fact that Maxwell won't remember what happened this WEEK, let alone the details. And no one else saw Noel long enough to disprove what we put forth. For last minute cover-ups, I think ours is pretty rock solid."

"What about Slade?" Cyborg asked, his arms crossed.

"Considering his level of danger, as well as his condition, we decided it would be best if STAR Labs treated him. He's in a heavily locked down facility; even if he wakes up even someone like him will be hard pressed to escape. If he wakes up. There's a chance he never will." Batman said, and stopped. The Dark Knight and the three aggravated teenagers (Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy) stared at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"Well?" Beast Boy inquired, his face angry and offended.

"Well what?" Batman replied.

"What about Noel? How about a little sympathy? JUST A LITTLE?" Beast Boy yelled/pleaded.

Batman's eyes narrowed.

"…We all have choices." Batman finally said. "Noel made his."

Even Robin, who was expecting an answer like that, found himself amazed, and angered, by how cold it was. But whatever reaction that might have caused him problems with his teacher later, however, were made moot, as Beast Boy acted first.

"Choices? CHOICES?" Beast Boy exploded. "You know what Bats? FUCK YOU."

And Beast Boy hit the off switch, causing Batman's face to vanish into a dot of light.

"Choices? He boils it all down to choices? That bastard, he could never understand, he…" Beast Boy said, waving his arms around in the way the hopelessly upset do.

"I know Gar. I know." Cyborg replied, his own face grim.

"Yeah but…guys…guys…" Beast Boy said, and then sank into a nearby chair. "This shouldn't have happened. Noel was our teammate, our FRIEND! And we…"

"We couldn't do anything else." Robin said. His voice was not cold, but Robin tried to keep the emotion, the general sadness and depression, dampened down. Despite what had happened, the Titans still lived and existed, and they had responsibilities. And they had to shoulder them, even now, as much as part of him wanted to rage at it all.

But he had to keep going, and help his teammates do it as well.

It was what Noel would have wanted, he was sure of it.

"He's right Gar." Cyborg said as he sat down next to the changeling and put an arm on his shoulder. "Maybe we should have done it differently…but Gar, Slade had been planning this for a long time. And you know how smart he is. I think the only one who could have handled this perfectly was God himself. In the end, we've done all we can. And we'll keep doing it. The rest…" Cyborg said, and left the actual rest unsaid.

Robin sighed and turned back to the computer. One last part of this terrible event, and then maybe he could actually start to deal with it.

"What about Raven?" Cyborg suddenly asked. Robin turned back to the robot teen. "How's she handling this?"

"About as well as she could. For now, we should leave her alone. Later…we'll see what happens." Robin said.

"Leave her alone? Isn't that what caused this in the first place?" Beast Boy asked.

"…Maybe." Robin said. He sighed once more and turned back to face his team, removing his mask as he did so. The action felt appropriate for some reason.

"We don't all know each other's feelings entirely. It is not in human nature to fully share our thoughts, our desires, our sins. Sometimes…that can come back to haunt us. But the purpose of those mistakes, those sins, as it were, is to learn from them. What happened…I won't let it happen again. That's what I learned."

Silence. Robin turned back to the computer.

"Maybe it was a lesson better left unlearned." Cyborg said quietly.

"All the worthy ones tend to be." Robin sadly replied, as he called up Noel's file and began making the appropriate alterations.

* * *

She sat, alone on the roof, like before. But this time she did not meditate; instead she stared off into the distance, her hood back, her eyes calm. 

She knew this is not a true calm, but rather the calmness of numbness. Later, she would have to face the storm, to face how this event has affected her and her team. She knew it was coming, and prepared for it as best she could. She knew it would be hard, but she also knew she would make it through it.

She wished she could say the same about other things.

So she sat, and she stared.

She sensed her coming, sensed her standing there.

"…Would you like to talk?" Starfire asked.

"…Not much of anything left that can be said." Raven replied.

A pause, and then Starfire walked over and sat down next to Raven.

"…Would you like to be held?" She asked.

"…Yes…yes I think I would." Raven replied again.

Starfire gently put her arm around Raven. She did not draw her close, she knew that wouldn't work. Raven had to come on her own.

And she did, leaning slightly against the alien, still staring off in the distance.

"He will come back to us." Starfire said quietly. "To you." 

"I hope so." Raven said.

But she knew just how fragile hope was.

But she also knew how hard it was to truly kill.

* * *

Someplace else. A dark place. A dark room. 

And a dark man.

A happy dark man.

"Heh heh heh heh heh." Jack Djinn laughed softly to himself. "Same place thief. The same."

* * *

"So…what exactly is wrong with him?" One of the men asked. 

"You got me. Brought in late afternoon, very secretive, hush hush, tons of sign this and say nothing or I'll sue…we get all the weird ones." The other man said.

"Well, it's a weird city."

"Weird world." The second man said, as he peered through the heavily reinforced glass into the small, dark room.

"You think he'll be trouble?" The second man asked. They were wearing white uniforms, and both were quite large. 

"I don't know. Hasn't given any indication yet. He's just sat in the corner. Spent the last hour or so mumbling to himself."

"Oh really? What about?"

"Oh, just the usual nonsense. Or it could be genius. Hard to tell." The first man said, taking his own glimpse at the man in the corner, carefully tied up in a straightjacket, the back of his head resting against the padded wall. If the men could hear the mumbles, they could have probably heard the strange tone of the voice, quiet desperation mixed with resigned hopelessness, as the words came out in a steady stream.

"They say that there's a broken light for every heart on Broadway…they say that life's a game and then they take the board away…" Noel mumbled to himself. "They give you masks and costumes and an outline for a story…then leave you all to improvise their vicious cabaret…"

The two men almost didn't see the doctor coming.

"Excuse me gentlemen…" He said, a wiry man with crazy hair. He looked more like he should be locked up then providing treatment, as the two guards looked away from the door.

"Ah…hello sir. We were just checking on the new patient." The first man said.

"If that's all." The doctor said. The second man looked more relaxed: apparently he knew the doctor better.

"Evening Dr. Hattings. You cut your fingernails this time?"

"Oh even when I do they just grow back twice as long and sharp. It's like I'm destined to have claws." Dr. Hastings said.

"Heh, then you just need long ears to be a proper monster!" The first man tried to joke. The doctor and second guard stared at him. "Er, any information doctor? Will this man be dangerous?"

"No no. Not brought in for aggression or psychotic tendencies. The patient in a mostly catatonic state. He's suffered some kind of extreme trauma and as a result his brain has retreated from reality and whatever hurt him into himself. He's a strange case. Seems to maintain basic motor function when prompted, but besides that he's pretty much a blank. I'd think you'd have more of a risk then him pissing on you when you're moving him then him attacking you."

"Who IS he though?"

"That's confidential, and you'll both have to sign papers in regards to it. We're being paid very well for his treatment, and god knows that's a common thing despite our quality of staff." Dr. Hastings said, being sarcastic about the commonalty of being well paid, not so much about the staff quality, which Dr. Hastings considered pretty good, compared to some places.

"Ok ok…geez, what did he do, see the face of god?"

"I doubt that. I have a feeling that would produce enlightenment. Here, we just have frantic scrambling to escape and outright avoid painful memories, experiences, emotions. I have hopes for the treatment, but this man appears to be struggling with a great burden. Whether he can throw it off is ultimately up to him."

"And if he doesn't throw it off?" The second guard asked. 

"From my current, very unrefined examination, the patient appears to have retreated into his head. From there, there's a myriad of possibilities, but I think that he'll be a substituter. He can't face his own memories, so he'll invent his own, possibly using bits and pieces of his then current observations. For some this is mild, others…they just make whole new worlds in their heads and live in them. It's easier to face the stories they create for themselves then the reality behind their pain. For some…they never come back."

"So…what do you think?" Guard 1 asked.

"At the moment, I'll just say no one should think they know what the future holds. Could turn out to no more substance then whatever's going on in his head." Dr. Hastings said. "And while it has been pleasant talking with you two, I have more patients to visit. Keep a close eye on this one for me."

"Certainly Dr. Hastings, I mean Hattings." Guard 1 said.

Guard 2 looked confused.

"The S in my name is silent." Dr. Hastings said.

"Oh, I see."

"Yes. In any case, good night doctor."

"Good night, Daniel, Elijah." Dr. Hastings said, and walked on.

_"The medicine of life is a bitter pill to swallow..."_

And in his cell, Noel continued on.

_"And even that does not fill me, I am nothing, I am hollow..."_

"In no longer pretty cities there are fingers in the kitties, there are warrants, forms, and chitties and a jackboot on the stair." Noel mumbled on. "There's sex and death and human grime, in monochrome for one thin dime…and at least the trains all run on time…but they don't go anywhere…"

_"For my failings and my sins I battle to atone..."  
_

And Noel looked out the window, as if seeing into the hallway, and all the way out into the large building on the hillside, and all the way to the sign outside.

_"Yet for all my struggles in the end I'm still..."_

**EDGE CITY ASYLUM FOR THE MENTALLY ILL.**

_"Alone..."_

The End (For Now)


	28. Youth of the Nation: Children's Crusade

Chapter 30: Children's Crusade

Writer's Note: I have heard rumors of a Teen Titans movie that may or may not be an origin story for the group, or rather the group portrayed in the Cartoon Network show. If this movie is indeed an origin story, it will most likely contradict the one I speak of here. This is just so you know, my referenced origin was done before the release of the movie or any information about it, for anyone who finds themselves reading the story after said movie.

* * *

"Noel's in a loony bin?" Rob said incredulously. 

Tim Drake didn't reply: it was as if hearing what Gauntlet said reminded Tim of the reality of what had befallen his team. Which had been missed by Gauntlet: he had been called away the day before Noel had returned and had only now returned, the day after Robin and the other Titans had had Noel committed. Tara had gone with him, for a still unrevealed reason, and she was by now standing several feet away. Robin had called them over the second they had returned that morning and had calmly explained what had happened while they were gone. Tara, overall, wasn't really sure what to make of it, as due to various quirks with schedules and obligations she had never even met Noel, and from what she had heard he wasn't the nicest guy to hang around with. But he was a Titan, as was she, and considering this group had accepted her when no one else had and possessed enough mental acumen to stop her when she had tried to run (and hence, in this world, saving her from a worse fate, though she'd never know it), she supposed she should feel some sorrow. But the truth was, she really didn't know enough to feel much.

Though she could tell the tower was feeling it. The Titans were engaged in their usual pursuits, but there was a muted, lesser quality about it. Victor and Gar were playing video games, but they weren't yelling and whooping and making their usual noise. Raven was reading nearby, but it seemed more like she was exerting effort to appear normal then actually relaxing. Kory was making some weird alien food dish, but there was no eagerness in her eyes as she prepared to grace her friends (or maybe torment them) with her cooking. And Tim somehow seemed even more solemn then usual. Well, Noel had been their first member after the original five, and he'd become part of the heart and soul of the Titans, a goal she and Rob were working towards but hadn't quite achieved yet. Well, if she didn't feel much, she'd see if she could help any of the others. After all, time did heal all wounds. In theory anyway.

Whether Rob was thinking the same thoughts, Tara didn't know. He was now leaning slightly on the table, his eyes showing a pondering look, and Tara figured he'd have to deal with this his own way and headed over to where Victor and Gar were playing games.

"Hey guys." She said.

"Hey Tara, good to have you back." Gar said, as he paused the game, put down the controller, and stood up. He looked like he wanted to hug her, but he settled for a comradely pat on the shoulder. Victor looked to be on the verge of doing something similar, except something on his arm began to beep, distracting him. He put down his controller and pulled what looked like a fancy pager from his arm, looking at it as his organic eye narrowed.

"Guys, I have a private call from my room. Tara, you think you could take over for me?" Victor asked, indicating the game.

"Uh, sure." Tara said, as she slid into the spot where Victor had been sitting. Gar picked up his controller and unpaused, and Tara got a brief idea of just how affected the green changeling was: he didn't taunt or threaten to kick her rear, he just continued playing.

She really hoped this was due to the freshness of the incident, and wasn't a long-term thing. She didn't think it would, or should be. The Titans were stronger then that. They had to be. They couldn't collapse at the loss of a teammate…because if they did, she'd have no home again…

No. She couldn't think that way.

"Ugh. This car sucks. Let me pick another one." Tara said, trying to goad Beast Boy into accusing her of being a sub-par game player.

"I suppose." Gar replied. Tara looked at Gar incredulously.

And then it happened.

For all his goofiness and overactive vigor, Robert Candide did have a brain capable of comprehending the reality behind certain situations. He understood all too well the actions that had led Noel to madness and how it was affecting his team. His issues with Noel had always been superficial, aggravating at worst. Noel might yell at him and insult his intelligence and even take a shot at him every now and then, but that was all personal stuff, stuff Noel never let get in the way of business. They were the Titans, and Slade had struck a grave blow against them. He understood that, and why the others were reacting that way.

What he didn't grasp at that time was that there are times for humor for such situations and times for saying nothing, and as he, as well as all of humanity, occasionally did, Rob made the wrong decision.

"You know…" Rob cracked. "I figure that if anyone was gonna land Noel in a nuthouse, it was gonna be m…"

The black energy was slamming him against the wall before Rob was even aware he had left the ground, and no sooner was he aware of that then he realized he was looking into Raven's eyes, pitch black, as she floated before him, one hand out, fingers spread, like she was in the middle of the gesture that would command her power to crush him.

Had it gone any longer, really bad things could have happened. Rob's reaction to a sudden and powerful threat to his life was almost always knee-jerk panic, and in such a state Rob had pretty much no control on how his power would react in his desire to survive. If he struck back, he could seriously injure or kill Raven, and chances were he'd react before the Titans could, as their brains were still processing the data that Raven had snapped at Rob's attempted lightening of the mood and attacked him, the realization transforming their faces into expressions of surprise.

"You…**_joke…_**" She growled.

Several light bulbs exploded nearby.

And fortunately, it didn't go any longer then that, as Raven's vicious expression changed almost instantly, going from furious rage to deep shock, the black energy fading and revealing her eyes as a gamut of emotions ran through them: realization, shame, horror, sorrow…

The black energy faded away, as Rob dropped the several inches to the ground. Raven lowered her hand.

"Oh God…Rob…" She said, as she fully came to grips at what had been unleashed from inside her as she had heard what he was saying, and how she had suddenly been flooded with irrational, unexpected, unbelievable rage that Rob would try and make a quip about what had happened to Noel, and how before her brain could pipe up that Rob meant no harm, joking was what he did to cope, he was probably trying to make them feel better she had been seized by the rage and lashed out, so suddenly even she was surprised at what she had done, after she had been certain she could handle this, that there would be rough patches but nothing she couldn't endure…and yet the second something crossed her mind that could be interpreted as a slight against Noel she had…

"Oh….Rob…I'm sorry…I…I…" Raven said, as the full realization came to her.

And then she found herself running, turning and fleeing, even as part of her brain piped up again, almost yelling at her, that this wasn't the way she should act, she NEVER acted this way, and to do so was bad…for some reason, but bad nonetheless, but the other part that made her run was shouting too, and it was louder, and so she ran, fleeing the room in a swirl of cape.

"Whoa." Rob said. The whole thing had happened so fast even he wasn't sure what had just transpired.

"Dude, what just happened?" Gar said, looking over the sofa.

"Did Raven just attack Rob?" Kory said from where she was looking out of the kitchen. "Are you ok friend Robert?"

"…Yeah." Rob said. However, the Gauntlet, having started to react when Rob had been grabbed, was still in the process of expanding over Rob's arm, a process Rob didn't stop. Perhaps for obvious reasons.

"Damn." Tim said. "I'd better go talk to her."

"You sure that's a good idea Tim?" Tara asked.

"I think it's a necessity." Tim said, as he headed after Raven.

It didn't take long to find her, as she hadn't gone far. She was leaning against a wall, staring at her hand.

"Raven…" Tim began.

"It just happened." Raven said. "I knew that this was going to affect me, I thought I was ready, prepared, and then…it just happened."

"Raven…it's ok. You've spent the majority of your life repressing emotions. Several months expressing them probably isn't enough time to work out the kinks…"

"That's no excuse." Raven said. "I…we have responsibilities Tim, and I shouldn't be acting this way. For any reason. Not even Noel."

And she wanted to believe it. It was the core of her character. She needed to accept there were things beyond her power to change, and that she couldn't let that get to her. Even when it came to her first love. If she and Noel had broken up, she wouldn't have reacted that way, hell no…

Except they hadn't broken up. If anything, they had connected at an even deeper level. It was the usual prose of romance novels and lovemaking scenes to describe that two people became one when they made love, but in Raven's case, with her empath powers, that was not flowery prose but reality. Few couples could say they'd traveled inside each other's mind and also felt what the other was feeling during sex, but one could assume any couple that had such or a similar experience would be very close indeed. Not exactly two parts that made a whole, Noel and Raven's personalities were too different to achieve that level of bonding…but a deep connection all the same.

And now it was gone, destroyed, cast into a darkness that might never lift. And for all her preparation and training in emotional matters, even Raven hadn't been prepared for what had awoken within her when Rob had made his joke.

And it was not acceptable.

"Raven…" Tim said, trying to find some words to offer comfort.

"I have to go Tim." Raven said, pushing off the wall. Tim's right eye widened slightly.

"Go?"

"I have to leave. I was wrong in my assessment and I have to correct it, and if I'm attacking Rob for a mere joke I'm not in the proper mindset to be on this team. I need to leave and work this out by myself."

"Raven don't…"

"I'm not cutting you off Tim. None of you. But there's no way you can help me, not with this. This is an individual thing. And I can't stay here and be a Titan with it affecting me. I'll come back when I've resolved it."

"Will you resolve it?"

"Yes." Raven said, her voice serious. "I just don't know when."

"…When you do, you'll be welcome back. This will always be your home."

Raven, despite her grief and the problems she had to work through with it, smiled slightly.

"It's nice to have people who believe in you."

"That's what a team is for." Tim replied.

"Goodbye Tim."

And with that Raven vanished in the shadows.

Tim stared for a few seconds, then sighed deeply. He had been concentrating on helping Raven, and since she had insisted the best way for him to help her would be to let her help herself, he now had to deal with the new issue that resulted from this. An issue he had hoped wouldn't come up…and yet an issue part of him had expected.

He flipped open his communicator and activated the general band.

"Everyone, drop what you're doing. We're holding an emergency meeting, now. Everyone report back." Tim said. There were a few complaints, but everyone replied with Aye.

Except one.

"Cyborg, please respond."

No answer.

"Cyborg? Cyborg?" Tim said, and then switched over to Victor's personal band. "Victor? Are you there? Can you hear me?"

"He said he was going to his room." Gar's voice cut in from Tim's communicator. Tim's eyes narrowed, and he figured that if Victor wasn't answering the communicator, he'd go see him in person.

He kept one hand on his utility belt. Just in case.

It took him two minutes to make his way to Cyborg's room.

"Victor? You there? Victor?" Tim said, knocking on the door. No answer.

"Victor? VICTOR?" Tim said, louder, while wondering if Cyborg had a scheduled cleanup for the day or something. Deciding he'd better check, he keyed in the entrance code to the door…only to be informed that it was already open. Tim slid it aside…

And found the room empty.

"Victor?" Tim said, now confused, as he headed into the room. It was, as mentioned, empty.

Except for a note left on one of the perpetually glowing computer screens. Arching an eyebrow again, Tim picked it up and read it.

Guys,

I'm sorry to leave you hanging like this, especially considering what's been going on, but I have to. I'm also sorry that I can't tell you where I'm going, or why. I can only say this is a very personal issue, and that I'm not in any danger. I will return as soon as possible, and believe me, I'll be glad when I do. Please don't read anything into this. It's just bad timing for something I just found out about, something I have to do. TTFN.

Cyborg

Tim read the letter twice as he realized that within the space of five minutes, he had just lost two teammates on top of what had happened to Noel. And despite Victor's request, Tim did read into it. And it seemed worse then he thought.

"Damn it all to hell." Tim cursed, and turned and headed out of the room, locking it behind him. Victor must have been in a hurry: he was usually fastidious about locking his room. He'd probably driven out when the Raven incident was happening, her reaction and then sudden exit providing the perfect cover for him to slip out unnoticed.

The timing spoke of more then coincidence in Tim's mind however. He hoped he wouldn't find anyone missing when he arrived at the main room.

That possibility caused him to break into a run.

* * *

"Raven and Cyborg are gone." Robin said gravely. 

"What? What happened to Victor?" Beast Boy asked, standing up, his eyes suddenly wide with horror.

"Relax Gar. He's ok. But something called him away. He left a note." Robin said, and read it out loud before continuing. "I tried contacting him on my way here, but both his personal and T-Car band have been disabled. Short of chasing after him, I can just say that we should listen to him and hope he comes back soon. As for Raven, she decided that she needed to deal with what's happened a bit more and has taken a leave of absence, as she feels it's the best thing. Both have said they'll be back…but all of you surely have come to realize the implications of this."

"No, what?" Terra asked. Everyone looked at her. "Um, newest Titan, claiming ignorance on that basis?"

"Rob, Tara, what with one thing or another, I honestly don't know the answer to this question. But what do you know about the founding of this team? Rather, this version of it: we weren't the first group to take the name of Teen Titans."

"Uh, I flipped through the records, the city was kinda run down, caught in a war between two crime figures, you guys all came here and stopped them and decided to stay…something like that."

"Close enough. You were right about the run down city part. I was living here at the time. I'd just flunked out of Hollywood after my fifteen minutes of fame and was kinda bitter, so I was trying crime fighting for the first time. I wasn't very good at it, but then I met Victor, who had just had his accident that turned him into a cyborg. We became friends, and we hung around together for maybe a month or so before the series of events that brought the team together happened." Beast Boy said.

"Jump City was being fought over by two crime figures: Thornton Neithercut, who was a traditional big crime boss, and the Crimson Queen, a fresh face who commanded an army of robots. The robots were causing big problems for Thornton, so he arranged for a cargo of very high tech, very dangerous weapons to be delivered to Jump City, to even the odds. The theft was enough to catch Batman's attention, so he came to Jump City to investigate. I came along. We'd been scouting around for a day when the shit hit the fan." Robin continued, and motioned to Starfire.

"It was further complicated when I arrived, having newly escaped the Gordianians, who had sent a unit after me, not to mention Friend Raven's almost subsequent arrival, and her own pursuers. We were thrown together in the confusion and chaos…we did not get along well at first, I remember you being very bossy and rude Robin." Starfire said. Robin blushed slightly, as Terra chuckled. She could just see them.

"And it hit critical mass with Torment." Robin finished. "I assume you read about him."

Gauntlet and Terra nodded.

"We won, barely. But it cost us. Cyborg lost his dad, Raven lost a gift from her mother, Jump City lost a good chunk of its real estate…but at the same time, we realized that it could still lose a lot more…unless we stayed. Despite our early differences, we realized that we meshed well as a team, and this city…it needed a team. So we stayed, helped rebuild, built our Tower, and have been here ever since. Crisis brought us together, despite what it made us lose."

"I'd like to note that origin story is also how I lost any chance of being called Changeling." Beast Boy pretended to gripe. Terra looked to the side at her green teammate.

"What?" She asked.

"The papers called me Beast Boy, I didn't like it, it sounded like I was part of the Doom Patrol, which I didn't like at the time, and so I tried to tell people I was Changeling. But when Star landed, she couldn't comprehend English well at first, so she kept calling me Beast Boy. And it stuck." Beast Boy said, and sighed melodramatically.

"You were so cute in your protests in those days Garfield." Starfire said, and the team chuckled for a bit before Robin tapped on the table.

"Joking aside, crisis brought us together. But it almost tore us apart."

"Let me guess. The Final Night." Gauntlet ventured.

"Yes. You weren't here for it Rob. Our records can't even begin to tell the tale of how horrible it was. It hit us hard Rob, real hard. We swore to protect this city and we failed in the worst way possible. I was ready to disband the team and go curl up in a corner. In the end, I didn't, but only because the team was there to catch me when I fell. But that was then. I've done my own growing and changing since then. Now, crisis threatens us once more."

"Yeah but…" Terra began.

"Tara, QUIET. Please. It's a good thing to see the silver lining of a cloud, but it's also important to look at when life is patting you on the back in case it plans to stick a knife in. In the space of two days we've lost three members. Even with promises for two of them to return, it certainly looks like the team is fragmenting, splitting apart, breaking under the pressure. Maybe I'm wrong in that assessment, but I'm not taking that chance. If we're starting to slip, I'm going to arrest it. It's all I can do after last time." Robin said.

"Dude, I don't think we're going to break up just because we lost a member. Even like that." Beast Boy protested.

"I would have said the same, if not for the incident with Warp." Starfire replied, her eyes suddenly serious. "It is strange what can bring about blessings and curses in this world."

"Well yeah, but Kory, you're the heart and soul of this team. Noel, well, no offense, but he wasn't." Gauntlet said.

"Maybe not, but he was still one of our limbs and he's gone now. And considering that Raven's leaving is directly because of that, we have to scramble and redistribute the weight before we collapse, because if we do, we may never get back up."

"Oh no, is someone going to have to take over for the griping and chastising?" Gauntlet complained. "I mean geez, with Noel it was always 'Don't open that door!' 'Don't throw that car!' 'Don't press the big red button that says Do Not Press!'…and I'm falling flat here aren't I?"

"Pretty much." Terra said.

"The point is guys, all joking aside…if anything is going to happen, I need to know NOW. I will not let this team fracture. I almost did it once, and by being stopped I realized that such a choice won't get rid of the evil in the world, nor lessen the risk that it could hurt us, or change the fact that it did. When we formed this team, we took upon a responsibility. It sucks at times, hell maybe it sucks most of the time, but it's our burden to bear. It's going to take more then this to destroy the Teen Titans. But I need to be sure of it." Robin said, and stared at the remaining four members.

There was silence.

"Um, a suggestion?" Gauntlet asked.

"What?"

"You're speaking of how crisis brought the team together, crisis nearly took it apart, it might take it apart again…I was thinking…why don't we find a more manageable crisis?"

"Wha?" Robin said, honestly confused.

"Well…what Slade did…that's the REALLY bad kind of crisis. The hide in the shadows and hit you in the back of the head can't see it coming with serious consequences crisis. Not all that common, but always nasty. It's all here in this book." Gauntlet said, holding it up.

"'The Junior Hero's Guide To Plot Cycles?' Where did you get that?" Robin asked.

"Grabbed it while I was home. I also grabbed a few others. Like 'Capes: The Flappy Killers' by Edna Whathername…"

"Getting back to the crisis thing Rob?"

"Oh yeah. Well, since we seem to have a bad crisis that appears to be threatening the team's stability, all we need is a good crisis to bring us back together. And maybe get a new member, hopefully a female. I'm getting really tired of..."

"Rob!"

"What?"

"Need to stay on topic. What's a good crisis?"

"A good crisis is one where the danger to your area of protection and your own life and limb is very serious on the surface but also able to be solved easily. It will not require so much thinking as it requires action." Rob read from the book. "Basically, it plays to our nature as a reactionary force."

"Indeed. I would feel much better about this whole situation and what happened to Friend Noel if we had something to kick and punch and blast and say clever things to and drive the insurance of the Building and Transportation Committee of Jump City up even more due to the damage caused from the combination of the first four." Starfire said.

"Well my dear Star, no need, for the book also says 'Remarking on any lack of a crisis will almost always spawn a crisis', so all we have to do is sit back and wait for the alarm to..." Gauntlet said, as he leaned back and put his feet up.

And…nothing happened.

Silence.

Nothing continued to happen.

"Well, the book isn't always right." Gauntlet said sheepishly.

"Well, seeing how Rob's wrong, as always as Noel would say…" Robin said.

"Hey! Just because our drama queen isn't around doesn't mean someone has to take over for him!"

"Right, anyway, what were you and Tara doing anyway?"

"Ohhhhh!" Rob said, as he swung his feet off the table. "I got called home and from the info I got I thought Tara would help. It was amazing! There was explosions, and car chases, and death rays, and more explosions, and Tara did this AWESOME…"

And then the alarm went off.

"What? Ah dammit LM! I deserve my own damn arc! Curse you!" Gauntlet yelled, waving his hand at the sky…and then realizing that all the Titans had left the room. "Nerts!"

Robin had hopped onto the main computer and was activating the system of cameras the Titans had hidden all around Jump City in order to pinpoint where and what threats were, as Gauntlet ran to join his teammates.

"So, who do we have? The HIVE? The Brotherhood of Evil? The Society of Sin? The Children of the Sun? The Party of Please Punch Me In The Face? They'd work REAL well for…" Gauntlet said.

And then the screen came up.

Rob's banter stopped dead.

"…………You know, I'm beginning to REALLY hate the whole concept of irony and how it tends to be applied in our world." Gauntlet commented after a bit.

"Be careful what you wish for…" Robin said grimly, as several more screens popped up.

The streets of Jump City were swarming with Sladebots, both the humanoid kind and the large more traditional robot kind. Robin had never seen so many of the robot drones (as in this timeline, Terra's betrayal and the robot armies that emerged there had never happened).

"Dude…I mean dude! Where does he get all these? Is there some buy one get three free special at some supervillain supermarket no one knows about?"

Silence.

"Um, I believe this is where one of you make your guesses on where all these robots have come from?" Starfire asked.

"Damn, got used to Raven and Noel doing that. So many out of nowhere…they must have come in through the sewers. Maybe Slade programmed them to rampage if he didn't give them some kind of command every now and then…" Robin theorized.

"So…why are they not rampaging?" Terra asked.

"Indeed, it looks more like military formation to me." Starfire added.

"Better programming?" Beast Boy guessed.

"Great, so it's not just armies of robots, it's armies of well organized robots? Is that allowed? Let's see the script!" Rob said, as he pulled a phone book sized tome out of some place and began looking through it.

"Come on, let's go!" Terra said, as she started to run away.

"Hold on a few more seconds Terra, we need to see if the robots are all we have to deal with." Robin said. "Which they're not."

A few new screens popped up over the old ones, as three familiar faces appeared on them.

"Crap." Robin said, as Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload marched down various streets, smashing, melting, or zapping anything in their way (but thankfully ignoring people who were fleeing from them). "How did those three get out of j…"

And the final screen popped up.

"…Oh NO." Gauntlet said.

"The return of the prodigal pain in the ass." Beast Boy said, without any humor.

Standing a car that had been blasted onto its side was a Japanese teen/young man, with short spiky black hair and glowing red eyes. One arm emerged from the trench coat he was wearing, the shards of bandages dangling from the red energy crackling on his right hand. When the power glowing in his eyes faded, leaving them a more normal brown color, you would think that there would be a lessening of the intensity within them, but you'd be wrong. If anything, it increased.

"Kurai." Robin said.

"I thought he was just working with Slade for his own convenience?" Beast Boy added.

"Guess Slade found more to offer him." Gauntlet finished.

"Kurai? Who is he?" Terra asked, as Kurai pointed and yelled orders, though he was too far away from the cameras for them to pick up anything but general noise.

"Old friend of Rob's. His family practices this dangerous martial arts technique called _Bachi No Kami_, or 'Punishment of the Gods'. Kurai's a master of it, though it comes with the cost of the fact that his body produces so much energy that it's slowly burning him alive. Or at least that's what Rob told me, because that condition doesn't seem to be playing any kind of a factor at the moment!" Robin snapped.

"He dislikes Friend Rob very much, and chances are he seeks his doom." Starfire said.

"Dude, this isn't fair! An army of robots, Slade's Terrible Trio, and Kurai?" Beast Boy complained.

"Who will be at the Tower in seven minutes, at his current pace." Robin said as he spun around. "Ok people, we are outnumbered, understaffed, and seriously outgunned. Kurai's got incredible strength and blasting power: we'd be hard pressed to beat him at our full capacity without the backup he has. Considering our current situation, we need a plan. FAST."

"Would 'run until we're exhausted, and then run some more' be a possible option?" Gauntlet suggested.

"NO!"

"Ok, all in favor of calling in a favor from the Justice League, considering how outmatched we are?"

"WHAT FAVORS?" Beast Boy sputtered. "We tick them off every other week by cracking their security and stealing Wonder Woman's lasso!"

"Well, at least when I brought it back last time I waxed it for her." Gauntlet said.

(On an alien planet)

"UHHHHHHHHH!" The Green Lantern John Stewart yelled as he was smashed with a giant fist and sent flying. He fell past Wonder Woman, who was standing on a cliff edge.

"I have you John!" She yelled, as she grabbed her lasso…which flew out of her hands and off the edge of the cliff. "Great Hera, what happened?"

THUD.

"Oh…sorry John." Wonder Woman said, looking at the John Stewart-shaped hole that was now in a cliff face.

"That looked unpleasant." Batman commented.

(Back on Earth)

"Ok then." Gauntlet said. "Considering Kurai's mindset, I have an idea…"

* * *

"Squad 1, hold back and provide long range support! Squads 2 through 5, move in with Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload! Attack any who resist, but do not waste your time on anyone who is fleeing! And to all robots, IF I SEE ANY OF YOU SITTING THERE WAITING TO BE BLASTED, I'LL DO IT MYSELF!" Kurai roared, and turned the earpiece he was wearing off. He cracked his neck and resumed his forward walk, letting his eagerness flit through him again. He'd waited too long for this… 

Kurai sensed the life energy a second before the whirling red projectiles were flying. If they'd been aimed at him, he probably could have dodged and countered, but they weren't aimed at him, and such an offense confused his senses enough for the Birdarangs to whirl into the Sladebot group that was marching behind Kurai and explode, blowing the group into a metric ton of scrap metal. Kurai, whose head had turned to watch the flight of the attack, narrowed his eyes as he watched bits and pieces of shrapnel hit the ground around him, and then turned back to see the attacker.

"Is that fair?" Robin asked, as he lowered himself from his zipline. "Isn't there some rule that says robotic minions are just supposed to stand there and take it?"

"Only ones that come from your foolish tongue, but I do not believe such things will be a concern long." Kurai said. "Where is that honorless cur Robert? It is long past due for his blood to stain the ground!"

"Why are you even here Kurai?" Robin asked, ignoring the Japanese teenager's comment, a deed that Kurai clearly did not like, as both his hands began to glow. "I thought you were just working for Slade to get help for your condition."

"I discovered Slade-sama had far more to teach me then I expected. After his failure to snare you and the blonde, he decided to choose me. So for now I serve him, until I have learned all I need! But that day is not today, much to your regret!"

"So you're leading this attack because of what we did to Slade?"

"Revenge? For another? Considering that other is Deathstroke the Terminator? There is no need! For all I know he has already recovered and escaped! No, this is because my time is now!"

"So you're attacking us for basically no reason at all." Robin said, his eyes narrowing.

"Who needs a reason to smite one's enemies besides the thrill of battle?"

"And do you realize that NOW is a BAD time to attack us, considering what your mentor just did to us." Robin said, in a voice that was partly a bluff and partly actual anger.

"It would be no fun if you did not have fire in your bellies." Kurai replied. Robin's eyes narrowed even more. "But even with that fire, it matters not. I have fire in my palms, and it burns far greater then yours." Kurai said. "Why do you battle me alone you foolish dog? You have no chance!"

"Maybe not." Robin said. "I'm nowhere near you in strength. But I bet I surpass you in another area."

Kurai arched an eyebrow.

"And what, praytell, might that be?"

"You were always too dependant on those fiery fists of yours Kurai. Even with Slade training you, I doubt you know how to fight any better then your old 'bash something with my incredible power' style. But then again, someone with your great honor should easily be able to prove me wrong." Robin said, as he snapped off his utility belt and undid his cape. "I challenge you Kurai, to single combat, no powers, no gear, just who is the better man. I do not think that will be you."

Kurai's eyes flashed.

Robin just struck a martial arts stance, trying to project an aura of fearlessness, though in truth he was rather nervous. If Kurai didn't call his challenge…

"Fool." Kurai said, as he assumed his own stance. "My techniques could have granted you an easy end, but you insist on prolonging it. But it makes no difference to me: your end will be assured by my hands."

"Don't sing it, bring it." Robin said, gesturing with a hand.

With a growling yell, Kurai charged.

* * *

The masses of robots marched through the streets, unhurriedly heading for their destination: Titan Tower. The two kinds of robots, to tell them apart, had special names: the humanoid ones were called "Dots" due to the large orange dot on their faces, and the larger, more classically robotic ones were called, unsurprisingly, "Bots". The Dots pretty much outnumbered the Bots two to one, and as a result most of the masses were large clusters of Dots backed up by maybe a dozen or so Bots. Not like it mattered: the little resistance from Jump City's police force had been no match for the robot legions, and a slaughter had only been prevented by the fact the robots had been programmed not to waste time going after anyone who was fleeing. The police had taken the hint, and had fallen back to help evacuate the areas in which the robots were marching through to get people away from their destination: the tower on the island at the end of Jump City. 

Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload weren't quite as disciplined, as they smashed, melted, and zapped things as they went along, but none of the police were brave or stupid enough to pick a fight with them, and hence the villains were reduced to destroying scenery, while a small part of their dull, often controlled brains hoped that Kurai would leave enough of the Titans for them to take their own revenge.

In the end, they needn't have worried. The Titans came to them.

A rock crashed down before one of the robot groups, and they stopped as the dust plumed up briefly and obscured the figure.

And cleared to reveal Terra, as she stood up from where she had landed. She was nervous, and as a result had rammed her perch into the ground a little too hard, causing her to lose her balance. As she looked up at the group, her hair fell over her right eye.

The girl and the legion of robots looked at each other for a moment.

Then Terra reached up and brushed her hair back, clearing her vision.

The weapons began coming out, as the robots' programming finally kicked in and they started to attack.

And Terra held out an arm.

Her rock perch broke from the ground, and from the small hole she had made in her landing a massive crack shot outward, ripping open the street under the robots, the army tumbling in as Terra rose up in front of them, her face grim as she remembered Robin's order.

_"I don't know how long I can screw around with Kurai! So act like every second is your last! No fanciness, no silliness, no complex attacks! Hit the masses as fast and as hard as you can, hold nothing back, BECAUSE THEY WON'T!"_

Yet for some reason…Terra felt a little sad.

It passed quickly, as she slammed her fist down.

The crack that had consumed the whole street contracted within on itself, crushing all the robots that had fallen in into so much junk. As explosions rang under her, Terra flew forward, her hair streaking behind her, as she zipped over the hole and to the robots she had missed, her eyes glowing yellow as she raised her arms. The streets ripped up again, the ground actually rippling out like water in a pond, throwing another mass of Dots and Bots into the air, and as they fell back down to the ground Terra slammed the huge blocks of concrete she had ripped out of the ground down on their forms, smashing them…

"RUUAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

Cinderblock appeared out of nowhere, leaping into the air with a scary speed considering his size and swinging out his fist. The huge stone hand clipped Terra's boulder perch, the impact making her stumble and fall off, plunging towards the ground. She gasped, and then her training kicked in, as she willed her power to protect her and it did, a huge hand of dirt emerging from the earth and grabbing her, dropping her softly and carefully onto the wrecked street she had made. Several more Dots appeared behind her as she touched down, but a glance and a gesture behind her caused her earth fist to swing out in an arc and smash them to pieces.

"GRUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

Cinderblock appeared from the smoke, stampeding towards her as Terra's head whipped back towards the noise, and her eyes widened. She was used to her team, and now she was alone…

With a villain made of…rock…

_Hold nothing back!_

The order made sense, and considering her power Terra was definitely at an advantage here…but she did not act. Not at first. Instead, she raised her hand.

"Stop!"

Cinderblock did not slow down in the slightest.

"I said STOP! I MEAN IT!" Terra yelled, trying to sound confident.

Cinderblock continued to ignore her requests for deceleration.

"This is your LAST WARNING!" Terra yelled. She shouldn't have been having these feelings: Cinderblock was little more then a mindless thug encased in a stone body. She had no problem smashing thugs. But not in the way she could smash Cinderblock. Such an option, while it made tactical sense, gave her pause, and made her yell her requests.

But Cinderblock did not listen. And he was less then ten feet from her, and Terra knew he wouldn't hesitate at all to smash HER.

Even so, she closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry." She said.

Then she clenched her fist.

In human terms, it was like she shattered his kneecaps and elbows, as Terra commanded her power over stone and rock to stop Cinderblock, using his body against him. He went down like a redwood tree, bellowing in pain. But he did not get up.

Terra opened her eyes, and was surprised when a tear streaked down from one of them. Despite it all, she felt sorry for the brute. The perils of choosing to be a hero, she guessed.

Perils that Beast Boy knew all too well. He'd dropped down onto another street, turned into the biggest, nastiest Triceratops he could muster, and charged into the robot masses, smashing a line through a mass of Dots. Their lasers stung and burned him, but he tolerated it, he had to tolerate it, because there were too many enemies to be distracted by minor injuries…

But the spray of green acid, spewed by the hideous multi-eyed Plasmus, who had come out of nowhere to blindside Beast Boy, would most likely cause far more then minor injury, as Beast Boy's eyes widened and he tried to turn into a smaller shape to dodge…

Yellow energy appeared before the spraying fluid, diverting it away from Beast Boy. Plasmus howled in rage, as Gauntlet hopped down from his rooftop perch.

"You get the Robbies, I'll handle this reject from the Outer Limits." Gauntlet said, as he recalled his yellow energy into his namesake weapon. "Say, you look a bit familiar…of course! Your base must have been the one used for Mortimer!"

Plasmus' only response was to spew more acid, which Gauntlet yelped and leapt aside to dodge, the corrosive liquid eating a line in the sidewalk (fortunately Beast Boy had run down the street to deal with an encroaching unit of Bots, the damn machines were EVERYWHERE…).

"Heyyyy! Man, why couldn't you have been Mortimer? He's at least FUN to fight!"

More acid. Gauntlet backflipped away and then sprang into a higher back flip as he thrust out his energy power in the form of a bludgeon. It slammed through Plasmus' ooze form, which didn't seem to bother him much. "Heyyyy! At least show a reaction that has an IOTA of negativity!"

Plasmus' arms extended and tried to smash Gauntlet. Gauntlet cartwheeled away from that and slashed out the Gauntlet energy in a blade shape, cutting through Plasmus…and then the two halves remerged so fast he might have never cut them at all. "Oh this is just plain cheese! You're worse then Never-Get-Knocked-Down Man!"

More acid. Another dodge. Gauntlet tried one of Noel's tricks and threw a nearby car at Plasmus. It splattered the monster, but it reformed almost as quickly. "Belgium!"

Yet another unit of Dots and Bots found destruction raining from the heavens as Starfire swooped down and cut loose, annihilating the first group before they knew what hit them and then dodging and swooping away from the other group's counter attacks as she flew on, zipping around a corner as she charged up and fired a giant blast into the robots waiting there, sending them flying up around her as she flew on.

And barely dodged a blast of electricity.

"Overload not so easy!" The electrical creature yelled in its usual third person speaking style. "Overload will fry pretty Orange!"

Another burst of electricity did almost that, as Starfire did a complicated twisting move that hurt her spine a bit, before returning fire with her Starbolts. However, the solar projectiles had little effect on the ion-based form of Overload, as he laughed and raised his massive arms. All the lampposts near Starfire exploded and spewed bolts of electricity: Starfire had to dedicate all her efforts to dodging. She flew over another group of Bots, who opened fire on her with powerful concussive cannons. Starfire took a few shots before her eyes glowed in rage and bright beams of green energy burst from them, slicing nearly all the Bots in half with one sweep, as Starfire whirled and turned her eye beams on Overload. But once again, they had little effect, and Starfire cut them off to conserve energy. Well, blasting wasn't working, and she certainly wasn't going down there to punch the creature.

"Overload is supreme!" The monster cackled. "Overload will destroy Tit…"

A giant block of stone came crashing down on the electricity creature, cutting his boasting off.

"Nice people you used to tangle with. Kinda makes me long for the growls of Aberration." Terra said as she floated down next to Starfire, who looked at the blonde.

"That was an exceptional bullet!" Starfire said. Terra arched an eyebrow.

"Do you mean nice shot?"

"Oh right." Starfire said, and blushed slightly.

And then the rock exploded. Starfire and Terra yelped as they were pelted with shrapnel for a second before Terra waved it off.

"Overload cannot be crushed like bug!" The electrical creature, none the worse for wear after getting ten tons of rock dropped on its head, said. "Overload will cook you from inside out!"

"Ok Star, you're my superior. Now what?" Terra asked.

* * *

Robin had no idea just how much Kurai was holding back. He had challenged the teen to one on one combat, and since Kurai was so obsessed with honor one might assume he'd dial down his strength to make the fight fair…but then again, Kurai's sense of honor tended to deal more with whoever he had perceived as having slighted him then actual honor. Robin wasn't going to risk blocking a blow only to find it breaking his arm, or worse, removing it entirely. 

So he dodged to the side of Kurai's first punch and whirled, slamming the heel of his boot into the side of Kurai's head. The teenager stumbled from the blow (Robin supposed that was a good sign), but recovered quickly and charged. Fortunately, his punch was sloppy, far more brawling then martial arts, and Robin zipped around the downward swing of the block and placed his hands on Kurai's shoulders, flipping over the Japanese knee and ramming his knee into the back of his head. Kurai went down with a yell, as Robin backflipped off the impact and landed on his feet, springing lightly on the balls of them as he waited for Kurai to get up. Kurai did, as he pushed off the ground with a screaming Japanese curse (Robin could have sworn he yelled "Get back in the car!", but that was probably just him) and swung at Robin again, a giant winding swing. Robin dodged it…and almost didn't dodge the follow up punch that Kurai threw, the blow carefully placed so it was at the edge of Robin's vision. Only Robin's exceptional combat training allowed him to notice the blow, and he managed to brush it off by jerking to the side and slamming both his hands palm-first into the fist, knocking it askew just a bit so it missed him. It had been a nice shot: it's often the blows you don't see coming that knock you out, rather then the big windup blows you see coming a mile away. Slade's training, no doubt. But Robin was still certain there was a lot more angry teen then disciplined warrior inside Kurai's mind, and he knew just how to exploit it. He just hoped said exploitation didn't get him killed.

Kurai was attacking again, swinging back from his thwarted sneak blow with a cleaving backhand. Robin backflipped away from the strike and brought the toe of his boot under Kurai's chin, knocking him back. Robin completed the backflip and realized he had almost run out of room, having been backed up against the stone structure of a nearby building. And Kurai was closing in to completely cut Robin off, as he punched out again. Robin dodged to the side and the punch cleaved off a chunk of stone from the building (hence revealing that Kurai wasn't dialing down his strength much if at all, but Robin hadn't really expected him to anyway). Kurai followed it up with a roundhouse kick, forcing Robin to dodge under it, albeit in a way that made him go back the way he had gone to dodge the punch…exactly what Kurai had planned, as he swung with the rotation of the previous kick and rammed out the same leg in a side kick.

The boot punched straight through the stone wall.

But fortunately it did not punch through Robin, as he had leapt up at the last second, and brought his own legs together as he landed right on Kurai's outstretched limb. Kurai goggled up at him.

"Nice joint development." Robin said, and he meant it. Even superhumans were vulnerable to dislocations without the proper training: the fact that Kurai's leg hadn't budged when Robin landed on it spoke of exceptional training indeed. Not that Kurai took the complement, as he yelled and tried to punch at Robin even as he tried to pull his leg out…

Robin jumped off the leg, flipping over Kurai, as Kurai yanked his leg out and put it down on the ground, the motion having the side effect of carrying him forward a bit and closer to the wall…

As Robin, still in mid-air, slammed both his legs out, the boots connecting with the back of Kurai's head and ramming him face first into the stone wall with a powerful crunch. Robin flipped off the blow and did several backflips away.

Kurai staggered and slouched, and then put an arm out against the wall, his shoulders rising and falling as he took deep breaths. Robin cursed inwardly: he had hoped the blow would knock Kurai out, or at least stagger him more then it apparently had.

No dice, as Kurai turned back to face Robin, bleeding from a split lower lip and from his nose.

"You…trash…made me shed my…blood…on…" Kurai snarled, and his eyes flashed.

_UH oh._ Robin thought.

* * *

Overload laughed merrily as he sent another bolt of crackling power towards Terra, who managed a last second shield of rocks to protect her from the blast. The heat and stench made her feel nauseous though, and it only got worse as a Bot appeared from an alleyway and shot her in the back with a powerful concussion blast. Terra fell with a scream, even as she jerked her arm towards her attacker and hurled the rocks at and through it. The exploding Bot didn't take away from her pain though, nor the fact that Overload was preparing another shot… 

Starfire swooped down, firing blasts and getting the attention of the easily distracted electrical creature, who didn't care which woman he blasted as long as he got one, and he let loose with his latest electrical burst towards Starfire. She couldn't completely dodge, and against such a blast of current even her insulated boot couldn't fully protect her, as the voltage coursed into part of her body and made her left leg go numb. Admittedly that wasn't too bad an injury when you could fly, but Starfire had no idea if there was permanent damage to it, and she couldn't take the time to check as Overload was priming up to do MORE damage to her form. It would probably be best if he didn't get the chance, as she flew to the side and blasted the ground around Overload, causing it to cave in and dump the villain into the sewers below, but there didn't seem to be sufficient water to…

Wait a second…

Starfire had an idea, as she swooped down and picked up Terra, who was also trying to recover.

Gauntlet had no one to help him: Beast Boy was too busy fighting mano a mano, or rather apeo a machino, with another battalion of Dots. And even if he could help, Gauntlet didn't have much of an idea of what he could do against the seemingly unharmable body of Plasmus. Unless Plasmus' secret weakness was for Beast Boy to turn into a dog and pee on him, but that was too ludicrous even for Gauntlet. Almost.

"Man, why can't you be more like your little brother?" Gauntlet asked as he dodged away from another spray of acid…and flew into a pistoning limb of slime, which had shot out of Plasmus' stomach and slammed into Gauntlet. The teen flew back from the blow, hitting the ground and skipping a few times before the Gauntlet energy caught him.

"Ow." Gauntlet said, as he righted himself and Plasmus headed for him again. He dodged another spray of acid, trying to remember the files of how Plasmus had been beaten before. The first time had been with Robin and Cyborg's Sonic Boom, but Cyborg wasn't here and Robin was tied up with a foe who dearly wanted Gauntlet's head, so Rob wasn't going to go looking for him unless he REALLY had to. Ok, Sonic Boom, special combination of Cyborg's cannon and one of Robin's explosive discs pooled to form a united, greater overall impact. Perhaps impact in itself would work?

Gauntlet tried this by turning his Gauntlet energy into a fly swatter and bringing it down on top of the yucky mutant. Unfortunately Rob remembered too late that a flyswatter had holes in it, which Plasmus' body splooshed through and reformed. Gauntlet yanked the energy away and leapt back several feet to avoid another pistoning blow of Plasmus' extending arm. It missed, though bits and pieces of Plasmus' body sprayed from the impact, splattering on Gauntlet.

"Ewwwwww. You're almost as bad as stepping in dog doo!" Gauntlet complained.

And then, Gauntlet's brain, often a strange and scary place, had a brilliant idea. This wasn't as rare an occurrence as some might have said, but in any case, Gauntlet's solution had materialized.

If it worked.

First he'd have to do something more in his usual vein. Specifically, he had to do something stupid.

"I'LL GET YOU!" he yelled, charging forward as a Gauntlet shield formed over his body. Plasmus, not really possessing much of a brain to tell if Gauntlet had just snapped or was planning something, responded by spraying acid. It sprayed over Gauntlet's shield, but the energy held firm and saved him from injury as he ran right up close to Plasmus, reforming the energy into some kind of undefined weapon. Plasmus didn't stick around to find out what it was, as he reared back both his arms and slammed them down where Gauntlet was…

Which was exactly what Gauntlet had wanted, as he leapt back and away, and even as he did do he quickly reshaped the Gauntlet energy into a wide, flat shape and slid it out, shoving it under Plasmus' feet. Before the hunched over mutant could react, the energy flowed up and slammed shut, and Plasmus found himself encased in an orb prison.

"Ha ha. Consider yourself…pooperscooped." Gauntlet said. "Hmmmm, hmmmm…no." He added, critiquing his previous line.

Plasmus started to shriek and thrash inside the orb, shoving the energy shielding outward in some places, and Gauntlet felt the resistance running up his arm. He probably couldn't hold him for a long time. But what…

And then Gauntlet turned his head, and saw that a battered but still fighting Beast Boy had just finished ripping up the last of his Dots. And he had another idea.

"HEY BB!" Gauntlet yelled.

Beast Boy turned to the sound, and found Gauntlet charging towards him, carrying what looked to be an orb on a stick of Gauntlet power that held Plasmus. Beast Boy's thick fur eyebrow raised.

"Give me a lift!" Gauntlet yelled as he continued his run. Beast Boy stood there, confused. "A LIFT!" Gauntlet yelled louder, waving his free arm up and down in the motion of people indicating they want to go up.

Still not knowing the specifics, Beast Boy improvised and put his hands together.

And in doing so did exactly what Gauntlet wanted, as he ran up to Beast Boy and stepped up onto his connected hands. Beast Boy then did what he assumed Gauntlet wanted and yanked upward, hurling Gauntlet up into the air, carrying the shrieking Plasmus with him.

"Okkkkkkk…" Gauntlet said as he flew up, clearing the sides of the buildings. "Maybe I can't do a Sonic Boom, but if impact's what did you in once, maybe slamming you into the street at 75 miles per hour will do the trick!"

And Gauntlet wound up and did just that, throwing Plasmus from his container and down towards the streets of Jump City. Plasmus shrieked all the way down, a shriek that ended as he vanished into another street, emitting a faint, wet splat.

Gauntlet fell back towards the ground, grabbing it at the last moment to arrest his fall as he landed.

"Oh yeah. I'm bad. You're sad." Gauntlet said, as he did a little dance.

And a Dot emerged from nowhere, pointing a gun at Gauntlet's head.

"ROB!" Beast Boy yelled in warning.

Gauntlet didn't even blink, as he thrust his armored arm out and punched the Dot's head off like it was the easiest task in the world.

"I'm not so easy to be had." Gauntlet finished.

"Where pretty girls go?" Overload asked, as he looked around, having pulled himself from the hole Starfire had made. "Come back pretty girls! Overload not hurt you…Overload just FRY FLESH FROM BONES!"

A rock slammed into the back of Overload's head.

"Sorry, I really can't afford to lose any more weight." Terra said. Overload turned and began to shoot his electrical blast, but Terra had already zipped back around the corner. Growling, Overload turned into a bolt of electricity and zapped after her, reforming around the corner.

He did not find Terra. Instead he found Starfire, floating in the middle of the street.

Near a fire hydrant.

Starfire didn't say anything: she just thrust her fist out. A green blast of power blew the fire hydrant into pieces and sent water shooting up into the air.

Unfortunately Overload was 20 feet from the hydrant and hence nowhere near the water. He laughed.

"Foolish girl! Overload not so stupid to go over there! Overload will zap you just as good from over HERE!" Overload said, and raised his arms.

And a pillar of rock shot up from behind him.

Overload whirled, startled.

Never realizing the rock was just a feint, as Terra dropped down near Starfire…with her specially constructed rock pipe, carefully formed by her trained powers, a pipe she slammed down on the shattered ruin of the fire hydrant, rerouting the water so it sprayed out, not up.

Right into Overload.

Overload screamed as he was soaked and the water disrupted his electrical body. But Overload was a little more skilled then he had been in the old days, and made an escape attempt as his body reconverted into an electrical bolt and tried to zap away. But the water had screwed him up too much, and he only got up and above the roofs before he lost control, and with a wail he zapped into another street with a distant crash.

"Leave the third person talking to Dwayne Johnson, buddy." Terra commented.

A laser blast nearly cut Terra's outstretched arm off, and she whirled as another legion of Dots and Bots approached. She threw up a rock shield and she and Starfire got behind it, shooting from behind the cover, but there were a lot more shots coming from the Dots and Bots, which was quickly turning the cover into rubble…

Until a massive shadow loomed over the group. They looked up…

Just as a brachiosaurus came crashing down in their midst. What Beast Boy didn't crush with his landing he took care of with twin sweeps of his gigantic tail. The stragglers were pounced on by Gauntlet, who jumped from Dot to Bot to back again, each leap destroying the robot he landed on before Gauntlet leapt on, never touching the ground as he leapfrogged across the remains until there were none left, touching down as Beast Boy returned to the ground.

"Whoo-hoo! 1-Up!" Gauntlet said, likening his jumping to the great video game character Mario.

"I wish we could get some extra lives." Beast Boy said. "Seeing how we might need them."

"Friends! You are ok!" Starfire said as she flew over.

Several new Dots came around a corner. Starfire turned and blew them away, and then continued towards the males like nothing had happened.

"How'd you do?" Terra asked.

"Rob took care of Plasmus." Beast Boy said, jerking a thumb towards him.

"We have dealt with the Overload, I think." Starfire said.

"I took down Cinderblock over there." Terra said, jerking her own thumb.

"Well done team! Now all we…"

"Wait, over THERE?' Gauntlet said, pointing in the same direction Terra had.

"Uh yeah, I think so." Terra said. "Why?"  
"That's the same place I threw Plasmus!"

"You did?"

"That way?" Starfire said, looking at the pointed direction. "Is that not where the Overload went as well?"

Silence.

"Well…heh! Surely that doesn't mean anything, right?" Beast Boy said, as he put a hand behind his head and grinned sheepishly.

A gigantic flash and mighty roar suddenly rose off in the distance. The other three Titans glared at Beast Boy.

"Sorry, sorrysorry!" Beast Boy said, and then turned into a bird as Starfire flew up and Terra pulled the ground up from beneath her and Gauntlet to go see what had happened.

It didn't take them long to get to the street. They hoped to find nothing. They definitely found something. And they didn't like it.

"DUDE!" Beast Boy said, as a horrifying new entity emerged from noxious smoke. In another timeline, Slade had sent Cinderblock, Plasmus, and Overload to assist his there-apprentice Terra, and the three had combined into a terrible new foe. But in this timeline, such an event had never occurred, and hence this was the first time the Titans had seen the combined form of the three creatures, as it shrieked and clawed at the heavens, as if it was denying its freakish existence.

"What the…no way! They can't do that! No one said they could do that! They can't do that!…Can they?" Gauntlet asked.

"Guess they added a few chapters to their book of…of…disgustnessness..es…ness…" Terra muttered, stumbling over an attempted quirk.

"It does not seem any friendlier then our previous three sparring partners. Possibly even less so." Starfire said, as the creature decided that protesting its existence was less important then terminating the existences of a certain four teenagers, and turned towards the Titans.

"Can I name it? Because if I can, I declare that he is Not-Mortimer." Gauntlet said.

"Um…no." Terra said.

"Um…three mutants…that transformed into another mutant…uh…Transmutate?" Beast Boy ventured.

"It'll do until Mainframe shows up to sue. TITANS, GO!" Gauntlet ordered, and the four Titans charged.

Transmutate responded by belching out a spray of liquid that ignited and filled the streets with flames. The Titans scattered to avoid it.

"Oh what, he breathes fire now?" Gauntlet yelled.

"No! Must be the electricity igniting the acid! Acid's flammable you know!" Beast Boy yelled as he popped out of an eagle form to land next to Gauntlet. The teen goggled at him. "My parents WERE scientists you know!"

"Ha! Ha ha ha ha!" Starfire yelled as she rained Starbolts down on Transmutate. The triplicate being responded by throwing clumps of purple ooze coursing with electricity. One clump caught Starfire and she screamed as she was given a brief but powerful shock, plummeting to the ground as Gauntlet ran in and took a few swings at the monster with an energy bludgeon. It shrugged off the blows and tried to pound Gauntlet with its fists, and then fired more electrified slime at the teen, who blocked it with a shield.

"Gar!" Terra yelled as she swooped down next to the green teenager, who was trying to figure out what to do. "Turn into a big form, hold out your arms, and stand still!"

Beast Boy didn't ask questions, as he became a gorilla and held out his arms. Terra held out her own, as her eyes glowed yellowish gold, and the ground began to rumble around Beast Boy.

Gauntlet leapt back in, his energy now out in the form of a lightsaber-esque sword, as he slashed at Transmutate and dodged and flipped around his counter-blows, not really doing much damage as far as he could tell. Tranmutate bellowed and breathed out more flaming acid, and Gauntlet had to stop his attack and leap back several times to avoid being melted…

And then he got zapped in the back. He yelled in pain, and turned with a growl as more Dots marched towards him. How many damn robots were there? Turning his attention to them, he began tearing through their masses.

Starfire was finally getting her body's neural process back in order when Transmutate loomed over her. She eeped…

And then a massive fist slammed into Transmutate's back. He roared and turned, only to find another, rock encased fist slamming across his monstrous face. Beast Boy, as a gorilla completely covered in rock armor, roared and continued to slam blows into Transmutate, as Terra stood nearby, having to use her concentration to keep the armor on Beast Boy. The stone insulated him from the electrified parts of Transmutate's form, and Beast Boy wouldn't let him breathe flaming acid as he continued to wail on the creature. Starfire finished her recovery and flew up…and gasped at what she saw. Several streets in the near and far distance were filled with even MORE Dots and Bots heading towards them. It was clear that Kurai had completely emptied Slade's reserves, and why not: an all or nothing affair would suit his twisted sense of drama. The robots marched on, and as Starfire turned she realized more were coming up from behind the Titans, despite Robert's efforts to stem their tide. Torn for a bit, Starfire decided to aid in his defense and flew up to take shots at the other approaching masses, beginning to feel tired as her solar stores began to run low. She began blasting at the nearest group…

And then a gigantic explosion sounded off, and Starfire gasped and turned her head as a building completely collapsed off in the distance.

Not just in the distance. Where Robin was.

"Oh no! Robin!" She said, and found herself torn again. Did she go and help or did she stay…

Beast Boy roared as he slammed a double fisted blow down on Transmutate's head, and as the monster hunched over, Beast Boy reached down and seized it, lifting it above his head…

And making his mistake. For he had put too much faith in the armor Terra had placed over him: despite her craftsmanship, it had been done on the spot. It was not perfect: there were cracks and gaps in it.

And ooze can fit through such things, as Transmutate's body surged down and onto Beast Boy's head and shoulders, the slime going through the cracks. That wouldn't have been so bad…if the gunk hadn't been electrified, an electrical charge that slammed into Beast Boy like a ten-ton sledgehammer, ripping a scream from his throat.

"Gar!" Terra screamed, and then the worst thing possible happened: her mind blanked. She had no idea what to do to save him, and such inaction could kill him…but the reason a team exists is to balance an individual's weaknesses and failings with their own strengths and successes, and that's what happened, as Starfire flew down, her eyes blazing green as intense bolts of twin energy zapped from it. Transmutate's merged form seemed to have more substance then Overload's, as the power blast slammed against it and shoved it off Beast Boy's body and down the street.

"Beast Boy!" Starfire said, as Beast Boy reverted to his human shape, his rock armor falling off him as he staggered. He stumbled a bit before Starfire caught him. "Are you badly hurt?"

"Uh…just…dizzy…" Beast Boy muttered. In truth he was a little more then dizzy, but a gorilla could take a lot more pain then a human, and Beast Boy forced himself to shrug it off as he shook his head and cleared his senses.

Terra appeared next to them.

"BB?"

"I'm fine." Beast Boy said. "Maybe a bear would work better, maybe I can claw…"

A blast sounded behind the three Titans, and then Gauntlet landed next to them, his artifact smoking.

"Doing fine over there, how's it going!" Gauntlet yelled sarcastically, as he got to his feet.

And then another gigantic blast came from the distance. Starfire gasped again and looked up.

"What was that?" Terra asked.

"Damn. Kurai must have decided he was through playing fair and busted out his energy powers." Gauntlet said.

"We…we…we must help him! Against Kurai alone, he will surely die!" Starfire said.

"Uh, still have a rather serious problem here!" Terra said, pointing down the street, where Transmutate had gotten up, as the first of the Sladebot army Starfire had seen in the distance began to appear at his flank. Not to mention the group that was approaching from where Gauntlet had just been.

"Hmmmmm, face a superpowered monster and his endless army that wants me dead or face a ultra-charged crazy teen who wants me dead, decisions, decisions…" Gauntlet said.

"No decision! We must help Robin! They are headed for our Tower anyway! We can make as much as a stand there as we could here!" Starfire said.

"Uh Star that sounds kinda lame…" Beast Boy said.

Starfire looked at Beast Boy, and what he saw chilled his soul. Tamaranians were emotional creatures, and that could manifest in various ways, and in her eyes Beast Boy saw the fear Starfire had for her love…and what she would do if something happened to him when she could have helped him, orders or no, and worse, what she would do to anyone she saw who had caused that situation that prevented her from helping.

"On the other hand, he is our leader, let's go!" Beast Boy said as he turned into a hawk and flew off. Gauntlet grabbed Starfire a second before she took off, and Terra followed on a rock. The robots in range shot at the fleeing Titans, but none of them hit them.

That didn't matter much to Transmutate, whose primitive mind saw this as a victory. It raised its arm and roared in triumph, and then continued on its way, the armies of Sladebots following it, even as more groups of them converged and headed for the T-Tower.

* * *

Smoke filled the streets, leaving the two figures in shadow until a wind gust blew it away. Kurai stood, one arm out, looking content, while Robin lay half crouched on the ground, one leg out, poised from where he had rolled to avoid Kurai's blast. He hoped by now the police had managed to evacuate the surrounding area: buildings could be rebuilt. But people…Robin had had enough of death during the Final Night. No more. 

"So…" Robin said. "What happened to honor? And a fair fight?"

Kurai smirked.

"Stupid dog." He said. "If you command a tank, and your enemy only has spears, do you get out of the tank to fight, or just sit inside your superior piece of weaponry and blast away? One should not give up an advantage in battle, and a tank should not be beaten by spearmen!"

"Unless you're playing _Civilization III_." Robin commented.

"What?" Kurai said.

"Right, computer games and ridiculous balancing factors probably passed you by." Robin said.

"I have no need for such foolishness! I have the battle, and that is all I need! HAVE AT YOU!" Kurai said, and charged at Robin. Robin lay crouched in his position, waiting, and as Kurai charged in and swung down a fist, Robin leapt over the teen.

Who grabbed his ankle.

"Your slippery effectiveness ends now!" Kurai said, as he swung Robin up like a club and then at the ground…

As Robin went limp, and as he was swung down towards the ground face-first he suddenly coiled in and around, reaching under himself and grabbing Kurai by the jacket, and before the Japanese teen could react Robin shifted the momentum as he both threw with his arms and yanked with his leg, flipping over so he landed on his rear end as he tossed Kurai over him. He sprang to his feet and made a beeline for his utility belt: if Kurai was through playing fair, so was he.

Kurai took longer to get up then Robin, and by the time he did Robin had the belt back on and a Birdarang out and tossed, the projectile whirling for Kurai's head.

Kurai caught it.

"This is your offense?" He asked, and crushed the reinforced steel projectile. "That offense was an offense to offense!"

"Whowhatsis?" Robin said.

"ARGH!" Kurai yelled as he tripped over the English language and the whole seeming need of banter in such battles again and decided to do the talking with his hands, as he pointed a finger at Robin and fired. The blast hit the ground in front of Robin and blew him backwards at high speed, as Robin flew over the wreckage of the building Kurai had zapped before he managed to get his grapple gun out and fired it, grabbing a building and using the momentum to swing around the corner to another street.

"Damn." Robin said. Ok then, Plan B…except this mess had show up so fast Robin didn't have a Plan B.

And a need for one grew ever more urgent as Robin heard a whining sound and then recoiled as the building next to him suddenly exploded, a giant blast of smoke and dust enveloping Robin. Robin coughed as he tried to regain his senses, his ears ringing…and then becoming aware of a louder, cracking noise. Kurai had fired an energy blast after Robin's general direction and had hit the building he was standing nearby, and now it was collapsing towards him. Robin had no choice but to run, fleeing back onto the street intersection that he had swung around to land…

And throwing himself to the ground as another blast flew over his head. Fortunately this blast went down the street, a street that ended at the sea, which the blast flew into, blasting a tower of water a hundred feet high. Robin rolled and got to his knees again, realizing Kurai hadn't just been firing blindly: he'd shot in that direction to flush Robin out.

"Ah, amusing." Kurai said, walking towards him. "Though not the most practical way, it is so much more delightful to hunt rabbits with a cannon."

Robin hurled several Birdarangs at Kurai. He blew them out of the air with finger blasts.

"Do you think you can actually harm me with your pathetic equipment?" Kurai laughed.

"Considering the person who's tossing around giant force beams when they're not necessary, I don't think I'm the one who has a problem with pathetic equipment." Robin said.

Kurai's eyes narrowed, as he clearly did not get the reference. Robin took the time to whip out his bo staff.

Then Kurai realized what he was insulting.

"YOU MOCK ME STILL?" Kurai bellowed, and fired off another energy blast.

Robin leapt up to avoid it, hoping his brain, which could manipulate computer data like it was nothing, had been accurate in his assessment, as the blast flew under him and detonated…

And Robin caught the shockwave perfectly, using it to toss himself forward through the air at high speed, holding his arms out to put his bo in front of him, as Kurai's own eyes widened.

Robin rammed into him, the impact from the bo slamming into Kurai's chest running all the way up Robin's arms as Kurai went down, Robin slamming down on top of him, the pavement cracking from the impact, as Robin grabbed at Kurai's jacket…

Kurai managed to get a foot under Robin and shoved, hurling the Teen Wonder away like he weighed nothing, Robin losing his bo in the process. Robin landed badly and did a few painful rolls before he came to a stop, as Kurai got up, holding Robin's metal bo. The bo was a specialized designed weapon that was both light and far stronger then the average metallic staff.

Kurai twisted it into a knot like it was made of licorice.

"And you dub my…equipment…lacking." Kurai said as he tossed the twisted bo away. "Once again I must ask, what can yours possibly do to me?"

"Blinded by the light." Robin replied. Kurai arched an eyebrow. Had the stupid fool SUNG his reply?

Then he remembered that Robin had seemingly been grabbing at him when he'd knocked him down, as he looked down.

And found it attached to his jacket.

Unfortunately, all Kurai got to do was take it off.

Before the flash bomb exploded on his hand, incredibly bright light piecing into his eyes, and he screamed and recoiled away, clawing at them. Robin smirked, and then realized that that was pretty much his last trick…

If not for his team, as Kurai, despite his messed up eyes, sensed the energy coming at him. However, dodging a spray of energy projectiles while newly blinded is no easy task, and Kurai was caught by the last couple and knocked down again.

"Aren't you, being the whole student of the Bat thing, supposed to have kicked your foe's superiorly powered butt by now, the way all those geeks are always arguing Batman could do to Superman?" Gauntlet asked as he dropped down next to Robin.

"Yeah, but it's clear that he's not listening to such rules. He's also broken the one that robot minions are to be little more then targets."

"Yeah! I mean, no fair! Robot minions are just supposed to stand there and take YIPE!" Gauntlet yelled as a blast of power flew at him. Gauntlet dodged out of the way, and the energy bolt flew on and blew up the lower floors of another building.

"So you finally show your idiotic face, you dog…" Kurai said as he got up, his eyes having recovered, way too fast for Robin's taste (damn superhuman bodies). "Even without my powers, I could smell your foul stench!"

"I smell? No fair dude, I use deodorant. What did you smell?" Gauntlet asked.

"I…none of your business, Gaijin!" Kurai snapped, trying not to get caught into another game of banter.

"Technically aren't YOU the foreigner?" Gauntlet replied.

"SHUT UP!" Kurai roared, as he threw both his hands up to blast the bane of his existence OUT of existence.

And then a fairly large stone dropped on his head. Though it would have killed a normal human being, Kurai was not one. But it still hurt, as the energy faded from his hands as his body hunched downward in the way some people do when they've been hit.

"You know, they say a leader is only as good as his troops. Considering the joke THEY were, you probably won't be much better." Terra said. Her quip was to try and project courage she didn't really have, but in her inexperience she unknowingly made the situation much worse, for she not only insulted Kurai but gave him the (false) impression that all his drones and underlings had been defeated and destroyed, which was not the case. Which led to him coming to another conclusion…

"You…you never meant to challenge me in combat! You just wanted to distract me while the others defeated my troops!"

"Well, DUH." Beast Boy said. "What did you think we were doing, having a picnic?"

Kurai's energy blast would have removed Beast Boy's head if it hadn't suddenly become much lower, as Beast Boy turned into a mouse to avoid it.

"Stand still coward!" Kurai cursed.

Then a Starbolt slammed into the back of Kurai's head. He staggered a bit, cursing.

"You know what your problem is? Your attacks don't have names. Attacks like that need names. I think Destructor Wave is still available." Beast Boy said, as he turned human and then turned into a rhinoceros.

"Arggghhh…what kind of MORON ANNOUCES THEIR ATTACKS?" Kurai snapped back.

"OVERHEAD SMASHIE!" Gauntlet trumpeted as he leapt in and swung his Gauntlet energy down on Kurai.

Who caught it and hurled Gauntlet away.

"You will suffer a thousand agonies for all you have done, dog!" Kurai snarled.

"Well yeah you…are still boring!" Gauntlet shot back.

"And since there's no need to be fair any more, TITANS GO!" Robin yelled, and the Titans charged in.

Kurai's eyes sparked.

"INSOLENCE!"

The energy exploded off Kurai in a gigantic wave, shattering the street underneath him and knocking down all the surrounding buildings in a mammoth blast of red power.

"Oh my god, a Super Saiyan!" Something that looked strangely like a cardboard cut-out of one of Donald Duck's nephews said.

"Don't be silly, Super Saiyans are foolish!" Another strange cardboard cut-out person that also looked like one of Donald's nephews replied.

Then, with twin cries of "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!", the shockwave swept the strange beings up and away and out of the fanfic.

* * *

Kurai's outburst had smashed a good chunk of a city block, but fortunately the Titans had bought enough time for the people of Jump City to retreat several blocks away from the battle site. UNfortunately, that didn't mean they were immune from danger, oh no. 

It had been one of the buildings attacked by the Lord during the Final Night, but it had only been damaged somewhat. The landlord had made half-hearted repairs, and since it wasn't in the best part of town no one really cared…until Kurai's shockwave caused the fragile braces to finally break, sending the building crashing down onto a street. While no one had been in or under the building at the time, the street was being used to move people away, and as a result a large group of them were now trapped by the newly formed blockade. That wouldn't have been too much of a problem…

If the group hadn't found that one of the main masses of Sladebots, having formed together from all the splinter groups, had rounded the corner and were marching towards them. The group of civilians was cut off from escape. The police that had been with them had approached the robots in a vain attempt to perhaps get them to go somewhere else (as it had been shown the robots would not attack anyone who was running away), but they had been driven back by a storm of shots. The robot's programming was too rigid: they were not to attack anyone fleeing, but since the civilians were cut off from escape, the robots interpreted that as an attack, and as they started to close in it was clear they would shoot their way through the crowd to get where they were going. The policemen opened fire on the mass, but pinpoint shots from the robots quickly disarmed and disabled the officers of the law. Members of the crowd ran out to help them, some picking up the police officer's guns and trying to continue the attack, but they were hopelessly overmatched, as the robots closed in, their emotionless eyes locking onto the people as they prepared to get them out of their way so they could continue over the rubble and to their destination…

They never made it.

It came from the heavens, a blast of golden power that zapped down and exploded onto the small space between the trapped humans and approaching robots. The humans were blinded by the sudden light: the robots less so due to their mechanical eyes. The ones in the lead began to activate scanning mode to see if this surprise could match up to any information in their database. It scanned the small figure as it rose up before them, and came up with no entries…

And then the form raised its hands.

Golden lightning crackled to life.

"EAT BOLTS YOU BUCKETS OF BOLTS!"

And the lightning flew from his hands, an electrical attack that would have scared Overload, the power zapping out and striking the robot masses, zapping through them all within two seconds, freezing them in place as twitching, jerking statues before they all collapsed or fell apart, smoke pouring from their bodies, all their systems thoroughly fried.

The stench of ozone filled the air.

"YEAH! WHOO-HOO! YEAH!" The figure laughed, pumping his fist. He turned to face the crowd, which was still trying to recover its sight.

"No worry folks! Robots are all down! Bye bye! Always brush your teeth!" The figure said.

And then he was gone, like he had never been.

One of the policemen, having recovered, took it what he saw. The robot legions had been destroyed, every Dot and Bot down for the count, at the hands of the strange man…

Man…?

His voice had been…awfully high…

* * *

"Rrrrrrgggggggghhh…" Robin groaned through his teeth as he rolled onto his hands and knees, feeling bits of stone bounce off his back, wreckage from Kurai's outburst. Out of sight, out of mind, went the expression, and Robin had forgotten just how powerful Kurai was. He'd also forgotten what had happened the last time Kurai and he had fought: a complete ass-kicking, with his ass being the one kicked. And it looked like history was going to repeat itself… 

Robin shook his head and got to his feet, trying to find his team…

Kurai found him first.

"DISHONORABLE SCUM!" Came the yell, a second before a blast of power exploded at Robin's feet and blew him onto his rear. "You attempt such treachery, seemingly challenging me to honorable combat just so your fellow whelps can attempt to undermine me? Your folly shall be punished by…"

"CHARGE!" Gauntlet yelled, as he ran in, swinging his energy power ala a baseball bat.

Kurai jumped away from the blow.

"For once my ire against you is lesser then it is for another! For that, you shall live a few more seconds, dog!" Kurai snapped, and fired a blast from his hand. Gauntlet took it via a shield, and the blast still threw him back so that he landed next to Robin.

"What are you doing Rob?" Robin asked.

"Well, you surely have a plan don't you? I figured attacking him might let you do your certain plan! You HAVE to have a plan!" Gauntlet yelled as he got up.

"I don't!"

"WHAT?" Gauntlet said, as he looked at Robin.

Then Kurai's follow up blast filled his vision.

"HELL'S BELLS!"

The blast threw Gauntlet backwards again, further this time, as he tumbled through the air and crashed into the base of another building, which crumbled on top of the teen with a resounding crash.

"GAUNTLET!" Robin said as he stood up.

Then a blast of force slammed into his shin. There was no heat behind the blast, which probably saved Robin's leg, but the pain was still agonizing and caused the Teen Wonder to lose his feet again, as he collapsed to the ground with a scream.

"You should not concern yourself with what has happened to him." Kurai said, as he walked forward, cracking his knuckles. "You should be far more concerned with what is going to happen to you."

* * *

And who knew how grave that concern was, as the robot legions continued to march on towards the T-Tower, heading for the battle site to provide backup for Kurai, like he needed it. Transmutate led the main one, stalking along the streets, while no one led the backup group, as it walked onward. 

And found someone standing before it.

The Dots did not stop their march, though their systems began to arm up in case they needed to fight.

And a fight it was, though it was very one-sided.

As the figure flew up and raised its arms. Glowing dots of blue power appeared around it, maybe fifteen of them.

The robot's scanners went nuts as they suddenly registered an energy source off the scales.

An energy source that was unleashed on them, as the figure snapped out its arms and power blazed from its hands, even as the floating spheres of power began to fire as well, sending piercing bolts of energy out towards the Sladebots. Any offense or defense the robots could have mustered never even got started, as the spray of blasts tore through them like they were nothing, a gigantic line of explosions rippling backwards through as the energy bolts blew up each line one after the other. Within seconds the force was completely decimated and destroyed.

A Dot head came flying out of the wreckage towards the figure, which had floated down to the ground.

And then the figure suddenly lifted its foot up, catching the head with a kick. A light kick, as the head only flew back into the air a few feet before coming back down, before the figure kicked it again, and again, as the form tried to keep the head off the ground. He did this perhaps a dozen times before the kick carried the head too far away to be struck again, as it bounced off a wall and fell to the ground, immobile.

The figure laughed delightedly and shot into the sky, moving at speeds so great it was like teleportation.

* * *

"You should not have aroused my ire gaijin!" Kurai said as he headed for Robin, whose injured leg rendered him immobile. "My family have razed cities to the ground for dishonor, and believe me, I think they were-ARGH!" Kurai yelled, as a green rat suddenly appeared on his shoulder and took as big a bite out of Kurai's neck as it could. Kurai swatted at Beast Boy, but Beast Boy turned into a hummingbird, dodged around Kurai's form, and then landed on Kurai's other shoulder as a lobster, where he grabbed Kurai's ear as hard as he could. 

"ARGH! YOU SUICIDAL WEAKLING! YOU WILL BURN!" Kurai screamed, trying to get at Beast Boy, but he had become a mouse and run down Kurai's jacket. Kurai was about to use a energy surge to blow him off, had Beast Boy not turned into a vole and taken a bite of Kurai's left buttocks. Kurai yelled in pain and once again tried to smash Beast Boy, but the nimble changeling dodged again and ran down to Kurai's feet, where he became a fox and gnawed on Kurai's ankle. Kurai stomped at him, but Beast Boy darted away and into a cloud of smoke as Kurai staggered, having lost his balance with the move.

And Beast Boy saw that as his opening, and went for all the marbles, as a giant green T-Rex loomed out of the smoke, as Beast Boy thrust his powerful jaws at Kurai and tried to grab him…

As Kurai reached up and seized the huge mouth, stopping it and Beast Boy dead in its tracks. A dinosaur eye couldn't really express surprise, but you could still tell that was what Beast Boy felt.

"There is a reason your kind is extinct." Kurai said smugly.

And he lifted Beast Boy off his feet, picking up the huge mass Beast Boy possessed like he weighed nothing, and hurled him to the side, as red energy exploded on his right palm and Kurai hurled a devastating bolt of power into Beast Boy's flank. Beast Boy's roar rang through the air as his dinosaur form rolled and then shrank back to normal, Beast Boy landed among the ruins of a fallen building, a nasty burn on his side.

"You should feel fortunate I even bothered paying you so much mind, stupid child." Kurai said.

"HAHHHHH!" Robin yelled as he leapt in with a spin kick.

It was like hitting a brick wall, as Robin's foot hit Kurai's blocking arm that swiftly whirled and grabbed Robin by the leg again, as Kurai swung him down and slammed his palm into Robin's chest, driving the wind out of him and cracking a few ribs.

"At my best, I can feel your pathetic energy long before you can even get close to me." Kurai said, pulling Robin up so he was face to face with him. "You see, skill is only the icing. It's power that makes me the whole cake!"

"It's…take the cake…you idiot." Robin muttered.

Kurai's eyes flashed, and he shoved his head forward and headbutted Robin, sending Robin's own head snapping back in a spray of blood.

"Your love for pain must be the envy of demons in hell!" Kurai said, as he slapped and backhanded Robin repeatedly, knocking the teenager half-stupid. "And you can go see so yourself!"

And he swung back a hand, planning to put his fist right through Robin's chest.

* * *

Transmutate's archaic brain couldn't really understand what the tremendous noises in the distance meant. All it knew was its orders: find and destroy the Teen Titans. 

And the figure that was floating in front of it was not a Teen Titan.

Transmutate roared at the figure, which actually seemed to recoil a bit in fright. Just a bit though.

"RAHHHHHHHHHH!" The figure roared back, in a voice that was clearly female, and then the figure held out her arms.

The heat spiked up and then suddenly fire exploded from the girl's hands, flaring out and enveloping the whole street. Transmutate shrieked as he was bombarded by heat and flames so intense that even the combined state of his rock and ooze forms couldn't resist it. Behind him, the Sladebot legions were swept up and melted, or in some cases even vaporized entirely. Transmutate fought with all it had for a few seconds before it was swept away as well, squealing in pain.

The figure stopped her intense fire projection, looking at the scorched streets and the lake of melted metal that were once robots. She flew up higher to see Transmutate, his body splitting apart as the creatures that formed it lost their concentration. They wouldn't be doing any more damage.

"Nehhhh!" The female said, as she stuck out her tongue and pulled down the skin beneath one of her eyes, and then turned and flew off, leaving the wreckage behind her.

* * *

Kurai's fist swung in… 

And Starfire's own fist did likewise, connecting with Kurai's face and snapping his head back. Starfire furiously pummeled the Japanense teen, making him lose his grip on Robin as the enraged alien shoved him back.

"YOU ASPIRE TO FIGHT! THEN WHY NOT BATTLE SOMEONE WITH A STRENGTH LEVEL MORE ON PAR WITH YOUR OWN!" Starfire snarled in a very un-Starfirelike way, as she slammed punch after punch into Kurai…

Before he caught one.

"IF YOU INSIST!" Kurai yelled back, and returned the blow twofold, sending Starfire shooting backwards as strange colors exploded on her vision. But she swiftly recovered and spun around as she fired a Starbolt at Kurai. Kurai's arm glowed red and he battered the blast aside before he counter-attacked with his own blast. Starfire took to the air to avoid it and rained Starbolts down on Kurai, who took the barrage with crossed arms and an amused smile.

"Your rage is impressive female!" Kurai said. "But you cannot defeat me with energy blasts! You may as well strive to DROWN AN OCEAN!"

And Kurai thrust his arms up and fired off his own barrage of terrible power bolts. The sky rang with explosions.

There was a pause.

And then, smoking and unconscious, Starfire crashed to the ground.

"Heh." Kurai said, and spat bloody saliva on the ground as he headed back for Robin. "Now…where were…"

He stopped.

Her blonde hair blowing slightly in the wind, Terra stood before him, though her expression was more of someone who seemed to have gotten lost then a warrior ready to fight. Kurai stopped.

"Well, the stick was not broken. Not bad. I can see why Slade-sama wanted you."

"…What?" Terra said.

"Oh you don't know? Deathstroke had designs on you child, in your old days, great plans. But then the Titans came into your life, and that accursed dog Gauntlet ruined everything. Think of it girl. You could have been standing where I am had it not be for that fool."

Terra swallowed. Her…over there?

Could she…

Maybe.

But not here.

"I think I like where I stand just fine." Terra said, as she rolled her fingers.

"You won't believe that in a moment." Kurai replied nastily, and fired a power blast from one hand.

Terra lifted up from the ground on a rock perch, the blast flying underneath her and exploding. Dust plumed behind Terra, as her eyes glowed golden. Had things gone differently, she may have been Slade's apprentice. Here though, she was a Titan, and no matter how powerful Kurai might have been, she'd show him why she had chosen that!

As she seized all the tiny bits and pieces of rock that had come from the blast and hurled them at Kurai, a terrible cutting and striking storm of debris. Kurai recoiled, crossing his arms to try and ward off the barrage, and then with a snarling yell he fired several more blasts of power at the teenage geomorph. She leapt off her rock to avoid them as she gestured at the ground, and a hand of earth reached up and grabbed her. Kurai's destruction had unearthed lots of bedrock, and she was going to make him rue that fact as she reached out, seized several of the largest pieces, and hurled them at Kurai. Kurai yelled and punched one, shattering it, and kicked another, breaking it as well, but the third knocked him over, and Terra slammed it down on top of him for a second before Kurai blew it into tiny pebbles. But Terra seized the pebbles and sent them whirling around Kurai in a dust devil, both attacking him and obscuring her from his vision. The hand she was on formed into a fist, and Terra leapt off it and onto another platform of rock as she thrust the fist out. It slammed into Kurai and sent him crashing into the side of a building.

"GRAYYYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Kurai bellowed, as his rage overwhelmed him and his power exploded out from around him in a dome again, disintegrating the building behind him. "NOW…YOU…DIE!"

And Kurai fired off a blast of power the size of the average car. Terra's eyes went as wide as saucers, and she flew off on her rock…only to find to her horror that the blast was following her. She frantically tried to push her perch to go faster, but even with that she couldn't lose the blast, which was closing in…

"Terra!" Beast Boy said, as he swooped in above the girl as a pterodactyl, grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting her off her rock perch, flying over Kurai's megablast, which couldn't stop on a dime and do a 180 degree turn, so instead it flew on and struck Terra's rock platform.

The explosion was so intense that even forty feet away Beast Boy and Terra were caught in it, as the blast lit up the entire city in brilliant radiance. Had they been closer they surely would have died, but Terra and Beast Boy were still knocked senseless as they tumbled into the waters beside Jump City. As Beast Boy's vision blurred and whirled, he realized he had probably just saved Terra from incineration only to lose her to drowning…

The two forms hit the water, and sank below the waves.

For a foot, before twin pairs of hands thrust in and grabbed the sinking teens.

"Heh…heh heh…" Kurai said. "I should not have wasted my time preparing the robots and springing Slade's other followers. This was simple enough as it was…"

A whirling disc flew into Kurai and exploded. Two more discs flew into the explosion and added to the intensity of the detonation.

Robin gasped as another spasm of pain shot up his leg and nearly made him lose his balance. Kurai might have just cracked a few ribs in terms of actual injury to his bones, but his whole body still felt like one big bruise.

And as the smoke cleared, revealing Kurai none the worse for wear, Robin realized that was probably just the beginning.

"You are a slow learner." Kurai said. "I guess I'll just have to drill it into your head."

And Kurai raised his hand and fired off a light force bolt that struck Robin in the forehead and sent him tumbling down the wrecked street, coming to a stop several dozen feet away.

"This grows tiring." Kurai said, as he headed after Robin. "Time to finish it. I shall break you for your trickery, vaporize your team, and then I shall finally take my proper revenge upon the infernal Robert Candide, and then, just for fun, I think I'll burn your city to the ground…"

And then, much to Kurai's surprise, Robin flipped to his feet, though it was clear he almost fell on his face immediately afterward.

"OVER. MY. DEAD. BODY." Robin snarled.

"Heh." Kurai said, and raised a glowing hand. "My sentiments exactly."

Robin never knew what happened.

One moment he was facing Kurai alone, and the next three bright bolts of color had zapped past him and materialized before him, whatever they were throwing up another cloud of dust. As Robin recoiled, another kind of color caught his eye, green, and he looked over and saw, to his surprise, Beast Boy and Terra, lying nearby, soaked to the skin but alive. Terra was on her side, while Beast Boy was coughing up water that had gone down the wrong tube. But…how'd they get there? And what…

Robin's confusion was mirrored by Kurai, as he snorted and blew the smoke away with a wave of his hand and a carefully manifested force blast.

"What nonsense is this?"

"Our nonsense!"

And the smoke cleared.

Kurai and Robin shared the same expression once more, as both their eyes went wide.

Standing on the street, in a dynamic pose, were three people, two males and one female. The girl had a full body red costume with a small deeper red cape and yet another shade of red for her long hair. The first male, in the center, was wearing a golden costume with no cape with shortly cut blonde hair. The other male was black, and wore a blue costume with a longer cape with normal length dark hair. Their costumes had the usual boots and belts, and full-face masks that covered everything except their mouths and eyes. On each of their chestpieces, in different places and shapes, was a B.

And none of them were any older then ten.

"…What…huh, eh….what the…what…" Robin stammered.

"What is this, a day care?" Kurai snapped.

"We need no care! We'll take care of you!" The black child said. Robin winced: it wasn't exactly the best pun.

"Yes villain! Your evil ends here!" Said the golden costumed child, and struck a pose, as the other two shifted their own poses.

"…This is ridiculous! And not your concern! Get out of the way children, or suffer the consequences!" Kurai said.

"Never!" Said the female.

"To battle the Titans is to battle us!" Said Gold Boy.

"AND TO DEFY ME IS TO COURT DEATH, CHILDREN!" Kurai bellowed, and thrust out his arms.

"KURAI NO!" Robin screamed, as he realized, too late, just how merciless Kurai was.

As he fired off a giant blast of power that struck at the children and consumed them in an explosion, one that nearly knocked Robin over again.

"Ahhhhhhhh…" Robin said, looking helplessly where the strange kids had been. "KURAI YOU BASTARD! THEY WERE JUST CHILDREN!"

"That is not my concern!" Kurai yelled back at the cry of outrage. "If they do not know the consequences of stepping onto the battlefield, then that is their folly…"

The smoke cleared.

Kurai's eyes nearly bugged out of his head.

The three children were still there. Not dead, not vaporized, not horrifically injured. Still standing. Hell, their costumes didn't even look scorched.

"Meanie!" The girl said.

"Wha, huh…how….I…what…" Kurai stammered. This was impossible. His blasts had knocked down demi-gods. How could CHILDREN stand up to it? "What…huh…who are you?"

It was as if the three had been waiting for that moment, as the three of them leapt into the air.

"Wha-ha! Bolt!" Said Golden Boy, as he struck a pose.

"Ha-tha! Blast!" Said the black kid, striking his own pose.

"Tee-hee! Blaze!" Said the girl, as she did her own cute pose.

"Against all evil, united we fight, divided you fall!" The three all said at the same time, doing simultaneous poses. "Take THIS!"

And the three children thrust out their arms, and a fireball, golden lightning bolt, and blast of blue power shot from their hands and at a still surprised Kurai, who managed to get up his arms before the attacks hit him, combining and exploding in a way that almost knocked Robin over again.

"Holy…mother…" Robin said. He almost said Holy something else, but refrained at the last second. After all, there were children about.

Kurai slid backwards from the impact, his feet sliding against the stone ground like it was made of ice. He lowered his arms, rage blazing in his eyes as he looked at the children, who split apart as they began another pose.

"And together we are…THE ZAP PACK!" The three children said triumphantly, and suddenly a giant flaming background with a fancy Z appeared behind them…and then swiftly disappeared into the limbo that had probably claimed Cyborg and Beast Boy's fiery backdrop pose back in Chapter 7.

Kurai didn't recognize the name, and he didn't care. All he cared about was destroying these children who had dared strike him, as he thrust back his arm…

"ZAP PACK, GO!" Blast ordered.

Kurai never saw them coming, and he never sensed them either. And he had figured that, if that indeed happened, whatever came probably wouldn't hurt.

Oh how wrong he was.

The fist that slammed against his face felt like a mach truck, and considering Kurai could stop mach trucks in their tracks, for something to feel like that was really saying something.

The worst part? That was just the first blow.

There were a lot more that followed.

Robin had thought he was shocked before. But nothing compared to his surprise as he watched the several second slaughter as the three pre-teens pounded the holy living hell out of Kurai.

After hammering him with swooping, arcing blows as the three kids flew around him and punched, Bolt finally stopped in front of the staggering Kurai, and holding out his hand, he blew lightly on it.

Kurai didn't fall backwards, but it was still pretty impressive, as he fell to one knee and then onto his side. He moaned as his fist clenched one last time, still trying to fight, and then he was down and out.

"….Ok." Robin said.

And then Blast shoved Bolt.

"Bolt! I was supposed to blow him over!" The young child complained.

"No you weren't! I called firsties!" Bolt shot back.

"You ALWAYS call firsties! So it was my turn!"

"No it wasn't!"

"Yes it was!"

"Guys…" Blaze whined, apparently upset by the complaining. "Why don't I just pick him up and you can blow him over again Blast?"

"It's not the same!"

"What is going on?" Asked a new voice, as Starfire landed next to Robin. "Who are they?"

"I don't know…but we won…or they won…uh, WE won…?" Robin said, still trying to sort it all out.

And then the female called Blaze suddenly seemed to notice something. Or specifically, someone.

"STARFIRE!" She squealed, as she was suddenly over by Robin and Starfire, moving so fast Robin recoiled from her sudden presence. "Star I love you I love you! Can I have your autograph?"

"Um…yes?" Starfire said.

"Ohthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Robin said, as his mind finally resorted itself. "Ok…miss…"

"Blaze!" Blaze said happily, as if the name was the greatest thing in the world.

"Um…Blaze…" Robin said.

"Heh, we should call her Fangirl." Bolt snarked from the place where he was suddenly floating by Robin's shoulder. Robin jumped again. Nearby, Beast Boy and Terra had recovered and were clearly as confused as Robin and Starfire were, as they spoke among themselves.

"Oh right!" Blast said from nearby. "The only reason she's doing this is because you didn't get to drool over Robin first!"

"I do not drool over Robin!"

"Yes you do! I've seen you!"

Bolt zipped down and attacked Blast, and the two got into a classic cartoon scuffle.

Which finally stopped when Robin put his fingers to his lips and let loose with a shrill whistle.

"Ok, CALM DOWN!" He yelled, and the two boys stopped fighting. "Ok, who are you, where did you come from, what the heck…!" Robin said, as he realized he needed to know a lot about the new arrivals and he wanted to know it all at once.

"You are?" Starfire asked. She would have normally been friendlier, but she was still feeling the effects of Kurai's blasts: such things could even damper her cheer.

"I'm Blast!"

"I'm Blaze!"

"He's Dolt." Blast said, pointing to Bolt before he could answer.

"I am not!" Bolt yelled, and the two boys started fighting again.

"WHOA, WHOA!" Robin said. "Ok…Bolt, Blast and Blaze…"

"The Zap Pack!" All the children chimed.

"…Right…where did you come from?"

"We live here, in Jump City!" Blaze said.

"Right…ok, how come we never saw you before?"

"We just got our powers recently!"

"We wanted to be ready!"

"But then all those mean robots appeared!"

"So we had to come in early!"

"Oh my Robin, there are still many robots, we must…" Starfire said, reminded of what they had fled to help Robin.

"Oh no, don't worry!"

"We blew them all to bits!"

"And I got that yucky monster too!"

Robin goggled.

"You…without any real effort…beat a huge army of robots…three mutant monsters…"

"One actually." Starfire said. Robin glanced at her. "It is a protracted tale."

"Ok…and then…you beat…Kurai?"

"Yeah!" All three kids said at once.

"….Ok…just how strong are you?"

"Strong enough to beat that poopyhead!" Blaze said, and grinned. She looked so cute.

"Kurai…is very strong…" Robin said.

"Then I guess we're stronger then him!" Blast said.

"Like you! The Titans!"

"Us…?" Beast Boy said, finally walking over.

"Beast Boy!"

"Can you turn into a pony? Can I ride you?" Blaze said, suddenly on Beast Boy's shoulders, much to the teen's surprise.

"Uh…maybe later…" Beast Boy said.

"And Terra! I love your hair! What do you use on it!" Blaze said, suddenly in Terra's face.

"Uh…um…shampoo…uh…don't recall the brand…"

"Ok, ok, Blaze! Blaze!" Robin said, and Blaze was suddenly in front of him. "What are your plans?"

"We want to be superheroes!"

"Like you!"

"Together we can protect the city!"

"And beat up bad guys!"

"Hold it hold it…wait…you want to be Titans?"

"No! You're the Titans! The best! We could never be you!"

"You're too cool!"

Robin wasn't sure what to think, but if three kids with powers that were clearly beyond anything on their ranks wanted to hero worship him and his team, he supposed he could use that.

"We're the Zap Pack!"

"We'll fight evil with you!"

"Make this town the best in the world!"

"Yeah! Zap Pack! Go!" The three kids said, and slammed their fists together, producing a burst of power.

"Well…they are enthusiastic…" Starfire commented.

"Guys…guys!" Robin said, and the Zap Pack were once again all standing at attention before him. "Look…don't take this the wrong way…but you can't just BE superheroes…"

"Oh is it because we're too young?" Blast protested.

"No! Well…it has to be considered, great powers or not…where are your parents?"

"At home!"

"They told us we could do this!"

_Oh dear._ Robin thought. _This is rather troublesome. Considering their power and their age…but at the same time, they clearly admire us, hell the girl seems to love us…surely that could be taken into account…_

"Ok…ok…now Zap Pack…" Robin began.

And then there was a nearby racket. Robin instinctively whipped out a Birdarang and noticed the Zap Pack, instead of immediately flying towards the noise, also struck combat poses. _Hmmmm. Not bad discipline. Maybe there's hope._

Gauntlet shoved the last of the wreckage off of himself, revealing he had been the source of the noise. The Titans relaxed.

"Wow, Gauntlet! Say something funny!" Bolt said.

"Lemme at him!" Gauntlet said, not having heard Bolt's request or even seen the young child: his brain was too busy trying to reorganize itself, during which time he was swinging at air. "I'll show him hummus! I'll clock his clean! I'll curse Swedish fish on him!"

"Whoa Gauntlet, it's ok. Kurai's down." Terra said, as she ran over to him, even as Gauntlet finally got his senses down.

"What? He's down? How?"

"They did it." Terra said, pointing.

"Yeah, they took him apart! It was cool! Or so I heard, I didn't really see it…" Beast Boy said. "But he's finished!"

"ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!"

"And you just triggered the Last Stand Clause." Gauntlet said, as everyone jumped and looked towards the scream, as Kurai, back up, looking at the group with blazing eyes.

"YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Kurai bellowed.

Silence.

"Of all the pop culture references you could use, you used THAT one? It doesn't even make sense!" Gauntlet said.

"ARGH! I WILL DESTROY….!"

Blast and Bolt zapped across the ground and hit Kurai at the same time, the blow sounding like a thundercrack that sent a screaming Kurai flying into the air like he'd been shot out of a mortar gun.

"CURSE YOU POWERPUFF REJECTS!" Kurai yelled, and then he vanished off into the horizon.

"Silly man. Word tricks are for kids!" Bolt said.

"Quite a group, aren't they?" Beast Boy said, and turned to look at Gauntlet, who looked suitably shocked.

"They…these kids…just came out of nowhere…and beat up a villain…who we could barely hurt…with ease?" Gauntlet asked.

"Yeah! Ain't it great?" Beast Boy said.

Another silence.

And then Gauntlet stabbed a finger out as good as any Salem resident, pointing at the three members of the Zap Pack.

"AHHHHHH! EVIL! EVVVIIILLLLL!"

* * *

The group of people in Jump City did notice the figure flying far above their heads, but none of them paid it much mind. However, several did stop to watch it, wondering what it was…including a woman who briefly lost track of her young son, which had been holding her hand. He disappeared so suddenly, at such a convenient time, that she didn't notice he was missing for a few seconds. 

"Everett?" The woman asked, suddenly realizing her young son wasn't holding her hand any more, as she turned to look...

And found he wasn't just no longer holding her hand. He wasn't there at all.

"Everett? Baby?" The woman said, as the fear started, the fear that would swiftly bring her voice to a shriek, the fear that would eventually galvanize the crowd to look for the little boy.

They would not find a trace of him.

For when his mother had noticed he was gone, Everett had been pulled into an alleyway, a wet rag clamped over his mouth, his world rapidly spinning into blackness…the last thing he remembered was an unpleasant voice.

"Don't worry kid. You won't get hurt. Probably."

The nasty chuckle followed him all the way down to oblivion.


	29. Youth of the Nation: Kinderguardians

Chapter 31: Kinderguardians

It seemed like a nice day in Jump City. True, this could be said for most days, but today seemed particularly nice.

Gauntlet was walking along a random grassy field (strange, there weren't a lot of random grassy fields in Jump City). Following him were Starfire, Terra, and strangely, Blackfire, who Gauntlet didn't seem to mind, nor Starfire.

And then, suddenly, a robber appeared in front of Gauntlet, a classic stereotype who was actually dressed in a black mask and carrying a moneybag with a dollar symbol on it.

"Give me all your…!"

Gauntlet jumped and flip-kicked the robber off the screen. He did not ask why there was a screen to kick robbers off, there just was. Gauntlet and his women continued walking on. Suddenly, a scientist appeared in front of them.

"Would you be interested in buying a fifty foot mechanical celebri…"

Gauntlet kicked the scientist off the screen. For the first time, we notice how flat Rob and his girl companions seem, not to mention the strange way they are walking: they looked like cardboard cutouts being moved similar to South Park back when it had first started. However, this strange shape didn't much seem to bother Rob and the girls, as they walked on.

And strangely, a caveman appeared in front of them.

"Uggghhhh Gog…"

Kick, off screen, bye bye.

"Wow, you sure are strong Gauntlet." Starfire said.

"Oh course my dear! As the protector of this city, I have to be the strongest one there is!" Gauntlet replied. And their voices sounded a bit…off. Starfire's seemed less like her normal tone then like a teen trying to imitate a small kid, while Gauntlet sounded like he was trying to mimic an old…something or other. Maybe a bird of some kind.

"Yes! Let's have some ice cream!" Terra said.

"Yes! Ice cream for everyone!"

"Uh Gauntlet, I just want to know, you're the strongest in Jump City…" Blackfire said.

"Yes I am!"

"Well what would you do if some guy showed up and he could fly and do kung ku and shoot lasers out of his butt and stuff?"

"Well, I'd teach him a right lesson, the punk!"

"Well good, because here he comes!"

"Wha…"

And suddenly a spaceship dropped out of the sky and landed right in front of the group, who stared at it. It slowly opened, and out came…

"Greetings! I am Vegeta, a Saiyan Prince!" Said Vegeta, who had come out of the spaceship/capsule. Yes, it was indeed Vegeta: Dragon Ball Z troll hair short second fiddle to Goku Vegeta. And if you haven't gotten the joke yet, it won't get any more sensible from here. "I'm come to steal your Gauntlet, Robert McDide! Now which one of you is he?"

A pause.

Then Gauntlet slipped behind Starfire and shoved her forward.

"Kick him in the crotch, Gauntlet!" He said.

"Ok!" Starfire said as she started forward…for several steps. "WAIT A SECOND…" She said as she turned around and went back to the group. "I'm an imposter!"

"So, having a woman do your fighting for you, Gauntlet? Have you no shame? Let me remind you of the warrior I am!" Vegeta said, and zapped forward as he began to pound on Gauntlet. Strangely, despite all of them having superpowers, the three girls dove for cover as Vegeta beat the heck out of Gauntlet.

"Oh no! We have to do something! Anything!" Starfire said, and then Blackfire whacked her.

"Quit dripping retard all over the place! How can we help Unca S…I mean Gauntlet?" Blackfire said.

Gauntlet collapsed to the ground, the ever-loving hell having been beaten out of him. "Uh. I think there's gravel in me brain."

"Is this the mighty Gauntlet?" Vegeta said from where he stood above the beaten teen. "Is this all? Have you forgotten your power, your skill, your legacy?"

"I can't remember me birthday." Gauntlet said.

"You are unworthy of…" Vegeta began.

And then Terra jumped on Vegeta's back.

"Goodbye Gauntlet!" She said, as her eyes glowed.

"What…Noooooooo!" Vegeta said as he suddenly flew upward…and upward…and upward…

And nothing happened.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Vegeta asked.

"Um…grabbing your back so I can blow myself up to harm you?"

"I see. Can you blow yourself up?"

"Uh…I don't think so."

"Oh really." Vegeta said, grinning wickedly. "You are aware I will have to hurt you now."

"Could you not?"

"No."

"AHHHHHHHHHH! IIYYYYEEEEEEEE! NO, NOT THAT! OWWWWWWWWWW! ARRRGRGHHHHH! IS THAT MY TORSO? NO, NOT MY TORSO! NO! I NEED THOSE! AHHHHHHHHHHH! OWWWWWWWW! OH GOD DON'T PUT THAT THERE! NO IT DOESN'T BEND THAT WAY! AHHHHHHHHHHHH! NOOOOO, I NEED THAT LUNG!"

"Oh great, the author's playing to her Terra hating friend." Starfire said, and then Blackfire slapped her on the back of the head.

"Quiet! We have to fuse!"

"Fuse? Can we do that?"

"Yes!"

"But I promised never to fuse…"

"Quiet! We have to do it!"

"Ok…" Starfire said as she and Blackfire got into position. "FUUUUUUU-SION! HA!"

There was a giant flash.

"Man, who thought there was so much blood in such a thin girl?" Vegeta said, as he continued squeezing his shirt out…and found a girl with a purple and black outfit and reddish black hair and green-purple eyes in front of him.

"Ha! Ok villain, prepare to face the wrath of…Blarfire! Um, Stackfire?" The fused girl said, the voices clearly not having settled on a name. "Blacr…Stalackfire! No! Damn you!" The fused girl said, as she started fighting with herself and fell to the ground, bouncing on a rock and separating into two again.

"Now…I have come to take your Gauntlet!" Vegeta said as he flew down to the battered as hell Gauntlet. "And I think I'll take your job as well!"

"No! I'm a good hero!" Gauntlet cried.

"But we're better!" Came a child's choice, and Gauntlet's eyes widened.

"No! Not them!"

"Yes!" Said Bolt as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "It is us! Plot Device, Deus Ex Machina, and Mary Sue! Uh, I mean Bolt Blast and Blaze! THE ZAP PACK!" Bolt finished as his two teammates joined him with the final words and another fiery background appeared behind them.

"Mere children? Don't make me laugh!" Vegeta said.

"No! They're not kids! They're evil!" Gauntlet protested.

"We'll save you Gauntlet!" Blaze said.

"You can't even save your…" Vegeta began, before a flying punch from Blast cut him off. As Gauntlet watched, much like Kurai, the three kids proceeded to beat the hell out of Vegeta.

"Ah! Help me! Each one of them is a thousand times stronger then Gauntlet!" Vegeta screamed.

"No! They're evil! I get the big comeback here!" Gauntlet said.

"But we're heroes! Let us aid you!" Bolt said.

"No!" Gauntlet protested, but it was too late as the three kids combined their projectiles attack and blew Vegeta to hell. His smoking body fell to the ground.

"We did it! Yes!" Bolt said, and the three kids slapped hands.

(Far above Earth)

"No! How could those kids have beaten my greatest warrior?" Said an ugly woman with a staff.

"I think this part of the parody was cut out." Said a silver haired man.

"Shut up Richard Gere! Make my monster GROW!" The ugly woman said as she tossed the staff down to Earth. It landed by Vegeta and he flew off the ground as he grew to fifty feet and his hair turned gold with a roar.

"Oh my god a Super…wait, the author used that joke LAST chapter!" Starfire said.

"Ha ha ha!" Said Giant SSJ Vegeta.

"AHHHHHHH!" The Zap Pack screamed, and flew off.

"Yeah that's right run when the going gets tough! I'll just handle this…um…somehow…" Gauntlet said as he looked up upon his giant foe. "Uh…um…"

And then suddenly a house magically appeared behind Gauntlet.

"Uh, that wasn't there before…"

And then it began to shake…

"Aw man, not THIS too…!"

And then suddenly the house exploded, and out came a giant mechanical…

**_CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!_**

(He's in a lot of movies.)

"All right! Now let's get that big troll!" Bolt said from his cockpit in the head.

"Yeah! Smash him like week old roadkill!" Blast said from his cockpit in the chest.

"Why do I have to be the crotch?" Blaze complained.

"This isn't fair! This is clearly a plot against us, why are THEY doing all the hero deeds?" Gauntlet yelled as Mecha-Walken and Giant SSJ Vegeta fought.

"Because we're heroes silly!" Bolt said.

"We're saving the day because that's what we do!" Blast added.

"Why don't I get any buttons?" Blaze complained as she looked at her blank console.

The two massive figures fought into the sky, but Giant SSJ Vegeta went on the offensive and took the advantage.

"Ha ha ha! You cannot beat me!" He chortled.

"Oh no! What do we do?" Bolt asked.

"Quick child! Use the button!" Said the floating head of Tom Hanks.

"No, not the button!"

"YES THE BUTTON!"

Bolt hit the button.

Mecha-Walken quickly zipped over a charging Vegeta, and then zipped down as he lined up a shot.

"Goodbye big meanie! KAMEHAMEHA!" Bolt yelled, as Mecha-Walken charged a giant energy blast.

"Nooooooooo!" Giant SSJ Vegeta said.

And Mecha-Walken fired the blast, blowing Vegeta into the moon, which disintegrated in a giant explosion.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" The Zap Pack went as their giant robot celebrity fell back to Earth via the shockwave, the robot smashing to the ground as the Zap Pack fell out. They dusted themselves off and got up.

"Yay! We saved the day!" Blast cheered.

"Oh really. You saved the day huh." Gauntlet said as he walked up to the three kids, Starfire and Blackfire with him.

"Yeah, except the moon's been blown up and all the pieces are about to slam into Earth rendering it a lifeless wasteland." Blackfire said.

"And Terra's still dead." Starfire added.

"Don't worry! We'll take care of the pieces!" Blast said, and he and his friends flew up and blasted all the falling moon pieces to dust. A vein began to throb in Gauntlet's forehead, even as Vegeta crashed to the ground behind him, groaning.

"Well, there's STILL the problem of no tidal pull causing massive damage to the planet."

"Don't worry, we have a backup moon!"

"A WHAT?"

"Yeah! In our pocket!" Blast said, and then he pulled a small round rock out of his pocket and threw it into the sky, where it became the moon.

"A good hero is always prepared!" Blast said, and grinned.

"………..OK. At least I have one comfort: the fact that you have yet to go through puberty insures that you think girls are gross!" Gauntlet said, as he turned towards Starfire and Blackfire…

And found them walking off with Vegeta.

"Sorry Rob. But I like a strong man, and you…really aren't that." Starfire said.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…!" Gauntlet screamed.

* * *

"…OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The scream finished as Gauntlet sat up in his bed. "No….what…huh…"

The door slammed open as Robin charged in, just wearing a pair of loose sweatpants. His lack of a mask combined with the fact he had his utility belt hastily snapped around his waist and was holding his bo made a rather unusual and comic figure.

"Rob! Are you ok?"

"What…oh. Nightmare Tim. Nightmare." Gauntlet said as he came back to reality, realizing the whole incredibly bizarre scenario had been a dream. Starfire, in a nightgown, and Beast Boy in pajamas joined Robin.

"A mare of night? It truly must have been a bad one for your screams to be so loud and awakening." Starfire said. "Perhaps you should tell us what happened."

"Well uh…I was in a field…and you were there, and there was ice cream, and then a giant evil troll showed up, and there was a lot of stealing…" Gauntlet said, as he babbled out the dream, the three Titans getting steadily more aghast as they heard the details.

"Ok ok…Rob, we get the point." Robin said as the dream finally wrapped up. "It was just a dream. You can go back to sleep now."

"Bugger that! This proves what I said! Those little kid superheroes are…"

"ROB. Raven was the one who occasionally had prophetic dreams. You are not Raven and I doubt you are predicting anything. Get back to sleep, we'll discuss this tomorrow."

"But…"

"TOMORROW." Robin stated as he turned and started leaving. "My god, he even DREAMS in parody…"

The Titans left Rob alone in his room.

And despite his general feelings, Rob eventually fell back into a (thankfully) dreamless sleep.

* * *

(Author's Note: Ok, for the people who have read the past section with an expression of "WTF is LM on?", I will explain. Rob's dream was a parody of a Flash movie called Ducktales Z3, a very well done internet cartoon. All the strangeness came from it. It can be found on newgrounds dot com, but I warn you, it is a very large flash film and Newgrounds is not exactly the safest site. But it is a movie truly worth watching and explains the whole previous scene. Now, I will get back to my sensible plot.)

* * *

"Look guys, I'm telling: the Zap Pack is evil. There's no other explanation." Gauntlet said the next morning. The Titans had managed to get a halfway normal breakfast done before Rob had shown up demanding to talk to everyone, dragging them all into the main lounge, much to Beast Boy and Terra's annoyance as they were both in the middle of eating at the time.

Robin sighed.

"Look Gauntlet, it's certainly suspicious, but there could be more to it then that. There's no GUARANTEE that they're evil…"

"Yes there is! It's all here in this book!" Gauntlet said, as he held up the Junior Heroes' Guide to Plot Cycles. "Chapter 9, Page 2! 'The new hero in town is to be regarded with suspicion, without exception, ESPECIALLY if they're so powerful that they seem to put you out of a job with their superior abilities.'"

"Rob…"

"'There are, with a few exceptions, only two realistic reasons for them coming. One is that they are themselves a villain or working for a villain, and seek to undercut your local support. The second is that they are a glory hound who creates and/or causes the disasters they avert.'"

"ROB…"

"'If it's the second, it's a simple matter to expose them. If it's the first, then you have quite the fight ahead of you. Be prepared for the worst, and above all else, do not be put in a situation that makes you look like the bad guy.'"

"ROB!"

"Oh, you're going to agree with me now?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Gauntlet, what did you just do yesterday?"

"Begin to untangle a evil plot that…"

"BESIDES THAT."

"Um…got back from Ubertron…"

"Exactly. And what happens in Ubertron?"

"Um, lots of crazy stuff, you can't walk a block without getting involved in some scheme…wait a second, you're not suggesting that just because I came back from such a place I'm expecting it of Jump City?"

"That's EXACTLY what I'm thinking."

"But Tim…"

"He has a point Rob." Terra said. "Your city was amazing in both good and bad ways, but by the time we were done there I expected every sentence to start off another crazy adventure. And I was just there for a week or so. You grew up there."

"Whoa whoa whoa! We are forgetting the issue here!"

"That the Zap Pack is evil, right. Duly noted Rob." Robin said, as he spun around to face the computer.

"Noted? You mean believed! Let's get a plan together to trace the source…"

"Gauntlet, what did your own book say? After the part with superior powers?"

"Um…with a few exceptions…"

"Exactly. I understand your suspicions Rob, but I refuse to make a knee-jerk assessment that the Zap Pack are evil."

"They certainly seemed nice, and kind…if a tad bit excitable…and that's really saying something coming from me…" Starfire said.

"No! Guys, don't you see? That's what they WANT you to think!"

"So they're really midget geniuses who look like kids and act like kids to get our guard down to do…what?" Beast Boy asked.

"I will point out that if they wanted to destroy us that they could have just stood aside while Kurai did it, and THEN taken him down. They'd get all of the accolades and none of the troubles that come with killing superheroes." Terra added.

"Yeah but….but…!" Gauntlet said, his mind briefly blanking.

"Even if they're not evil, there are still a few things to consider here guys." Robin said as he typed away. "They did just come out of the literal nowhere."

"Technically all of us came from the literal nowhere." Terra said. "I mean, you guys didn't wake up thinking the day you met me that you'd meet an EXTREMELY hot blonde geokinetic, did you?" Terra said, primping a bit…and then realizing Beast Boy wasn't paying attention to her, he was looking at Robin's typing. Then the question of why she had done that occurred to her, and she flushed a bit.

"Origins are rarely revealed immediately. Heck, how long had we been a team before all of us had revealed our backgrounds to each other? Six months?"

"I recall that Raven was immensely secretive with anything other then vague details of her background until that incident with the Puppet King." Starfire said.

"Point. Ok with origins usually obscured, the first thing we have to consider is their power." Robin said. "Evil or not, you saw what they did. That kind of strength is no joke." The Teen Wonder continued as he rapidly typed at the computer. "I had a brief bout of insomnia last night and hence came out here to do some calculations, that's why I was able to so quickly answer your nightmare screams Rob…though we don't know much, if anything, about them, we know a fair amount of info about Slade's robots, minions, and Kurai. We can use that data to form some estimates. I mainly used Kurai for the basis…considering the general strength of his energy blasts…" Robin said as he rapidly typed, as several graphs popped up on the screen.

"We will be able to understand this, right, Could Put Together A Computer Blindfolded Wonder?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes yes, I simplified it. Well, if we put the strength of the blast at this…" Robin said, as a line appeared across a graph. "And considering that the three of them took it without any damage at all…that would put their power at at least this level."

Another line appeared, shooting past the Kurai line and continuing on for a while before it stopped. The rest of the Titans gaped at it, except Gauntlet, who was rapidly scribbling on a large pad of paper.

"By contrast, here's our general levels, and remember I said this is a very general strength scale, it leaves out specifics and variables and such…" Robin said, as eight new lines appeared on the graph. None of them passed Kurai's line, let alone the Zap Pack one.

"Ha! Mine's longer then N…never mind." Gauntlet said, as he started to snark and then recalled just whom he was mocking, as he went back to scribbling on his pad.

"It gets worse, or better, or…well, let's say worse." Robin said. "That line is if they had to join their powers somehow to deflect Kurai's blast, which insinuates they weren't strong enough by themselves to do it. Since they were standing together I really don't know if it was a group effort or not, but if it wasn't…that means all of them had the power to block the blast without being affected. That would put their strength level up to…well, see for yourself."

And the Zap Pack line shot forward even more: it looked to be on the verge of going off the end of the screen.

"…Dude." Beast Boy said as it stopped.

"To contrast one final time…" Robin said, as he typed a few more buttons. Another line appeared above the Zap Pack line and ran parallel to it, actually going past it, but not by much. It stopped, and a name appeared above it.

Superman.

"…These kids might individually have powers near Superman's level?" Terra said, her mouth suddenly dry.

"The calculations are rough." Robin replied. It was pretty much the only comfort he could offer, in terms of how much power the Zap Pack might possess.

"AH HA!" Gauntlet said. "Using this new information, I have worked out the exact reason why the Zap Pack are evil!" He said as he shoved a piece of paper into Robin's hand.

"…Milk, bread, apples…" Robin said.

"Dah, that's my shopping list!" Gauntlet said as he snatched the paper back and gave Robin a new one. Robin had to squint: it was so tightly packed with data it made Beast Boy's charts look austere.

"Friend Gauntlet, why are you so certain that the Zap Pack are evil?" Starfire asked, as Robin began turning the paper around to continue reading it.

"It's right here in the book!"

"The book that tells you how to be a hero." Terra sad.

"Yes!"

"Which you have always wanted to be."

"Yes!"

"And hence don't like being shown up by others who could possibly be heroes."

"Y…wait a minute! Why do you keep turning this around so it's on me?"

"Noel's not here. Someone has to." Terra said, as Robin continued reading the paper with a magnifying glass.

"The written word is not always perfect. Indeed, I have read more then a few Earth books, and they are not always accurate. Indeed, the many novels written by the clown do not even begin to capture like my time in the bedroom with…"

"Damn it!" Robin said as he dropped the magnifying glass. Well, dropped is a strong word: more like 'intentionally threw it on the floor as hard as he could to cut off Starfire before she tactlessly started blabbing about what she and him did behind closed doors'. It worked, as Starfire stopped and looked at him, the other Titans following her gaze.

"Ah, so you finally see what I'm talking about?" Gauntlet asked hopefully.

"Yeah Rob. You showed they were evil. You also found out the truth behind the Kennedy assassination, discovered where Hoffa's body is buried, and figured out why the toast always falls to the floor butter side down. In other words, not really."

"Awwwwwww come on guys! You have to believe me!"

"Rob, we're not ignoring you, but we're not accepting your theory at face value."

"But I proved it!"

"Rob, half that stuff either sounds made up or like the ravings of a madman." Robin said, as Starfire borrowed the paper from him and read several lines.

"Indeed, friend Rob. Part of this theory says that the Zap Pack are self inserts of some kind. Not only is the author twice their age, she's a regular browser on the God Awful Fanfiction forums and I would think that she would know better…" Starfire said, before a loud crash sounded off in the distance. "The forth wall again, who repairs it this time…"

"My turn…" Beast Boy said as he walked off.

"Look guys, Rob's THEORY aside, there are still things we have to consider…"

"I have a terrible sense of deja vu…" Terra commented.

"Ha ha. Their power's one thing, but their age is another. They're children. They probably don't understand a lot of the realities about life, let along being a superhero. That can be a very bad thing…"

"Or a cover for a villain!"

"ROB!"

"Ok, ok…go on Tim."

"However, we have an advantage: ourselves. They clearly idolize us. I'd like to think that if we have advice for them, they'd listen."

"So we ask them if they are evil villains!"

"ROB!"

"Well by what you just said it might work!"

"Rob, could you PLEASE think this through." Robin said. "Your whole theory was that they are villains. Ok, say they are. What's their evil plan?"

"They want to replace us!"

"So they stopped Kurai and then told us we were the greatest."

"They wanted our guard down!"

"Rob, if my calculations are correct, our guard could be up and they could still replace us."

"Therefore they are evil!"

"NO! It means…argh. Ok Rob, back off for a moment. It's true that villain plans can be complicated. What just happened with Slade shows that. But how often are they NEEDLESSLY complicated?"

"More often then not, because the author can never write anything simple?"

A loud crash sounded off in the distance, followed by an "OW!" as Beast Boy staggered in holding his head. "Rob, I was almost done!"

"OK, ENOUGH! WITH EVERYTHING!" Robin yelled. "Ok, GETTING BACK ON TRACK, and assuming the kids AREN'T villains, there's still a lot to do. First, I think we need to find out who they really are. I suppose we could just ask them, but it might be better if they didn't think we're suspicious of them, JUST IN CASE." Robin said, glaring at Gauntlet. "Second, we need to find out just where they stand. Yeah, they like being heroes, but will they tomorrow? With that kind of power, it would be best if we convinced them of the benefits of being a hero."

"There are benefits?" Beast Boy said as he finished wrapping bandages around his sore head.

"You know what I mean! They seem to like us a lot, so that might give us an edge…which goes back into my old point: their age. Assuming they're not villains, they're young. Maybe too young. We might be able to use our 'in' with them to convince them that they might want to wait a few years before they try and be a costumed hero. If we can't, and with their power it's quite possible we might not be able to, there's something else we have to do: KEEP THEM AWAY FROM THE BAD STUFF. They'll have to learn about it eventually, but not at their ages."

"I assume we should train them." Terra said.

"Yeah, we should. If they're on the level, they would definitely benefit from our expertise…come to think about it, they might not be the only ones. What if this isn't a villain plot Rob? What if this is karma paying us back for all the bad stuff we've been through lately?"

"Have you ever know karma to be this generous?"

"It allowed Superman to land in such a spot that he learned the best of human values and hence is a paragon of justice instead of an evil overlord, which is probably what he would have been if he'd landed in a lot of places in this society." Robin said. "Really. These kids are strong. If we take them under our wing, and taught them the values and breliefs of justice and aiding humanity, and made it stick, there's no limit to what they could do. Heck, if it went as well as possible, imagine what those kids could do for the world, let alone Jump City?"

"Yes Robin, but remember, hope for the best and expect the worst. There are things that fall out of the sky, but kids who will listen to us and make our lives as easy as these kids could aren't…"

"CYBORG!" Came a booming voice that made all the Titans nearly jump out of their skin. Robin had stepped away from the computer and had spent too much time arguing with Rob to notice it was being hacked, a fact that was now quite apparent as the face of Atlas appeared on the screen, glowering into the Titans' room. "The time for my revenge has finally come! Step forth so I can destroy you!"

The Titans recovered as they stared at the robot obsessed with victory.

"WHERE IS CYBORG? IS HE AFRAID TO FACE THE INVINCIBLE ATLAS?"

"Uh dude…Cyborg's not here."

"OF COURSE, YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID, FOR I WILL…what?" Atlas said.

"He left yesterday." Beast Boy said.

"Didn't tell us where."

"Didn't say when he'd be back."

"And we can't contact him."

"So try back in about a week." Gauntlet finished the thread of Robin, Terra, and Starfire each saying a sentence.

"WHAT? CYBORG IS GONE?"

"We just SAID that." Beast Boy replied.

"NONSENSE! LIES! You are just trying to protect him from my revenge!"

"Atlas, he kicked your butt last time and he'd do it again if he was here. Which is he not."

"You lying Titans! Produce Cyborg now, or suffer my wrath!"

"Dude, WE'RE. NOT. LYING. You're a robot, don't you have some built in polygraph or something to tell you that?"

"YOU WILL NOT DENY ME MY REVENGE! I WILL FACE CYBORG, OR YOUR CITY WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!"

"Atlas whoa, calm down…"

"YOU NOW TRY AND STALL ME! THAT IS IT! FOR YOUR DISHONESTY, I SHALL BRING MY INVINCIBLE MIGHT AGAINST THIS PATHETIC TOWN UNTIL YOU PRODUCE CYBORG!" Atlas bellowed, and then the screen shut off.

"Terra, remember when you were asking me for a metaphoric example of tunnel vision? That's pretty much it." Gauntlet said, pointing.

"Let's give him a 'metaphoric example' of an asskicking. Titans, GO!" Robin ordered, as the group ran out of the room.

* * *

While Atlas had captured the Titans in their original meeting, the element of surprise was now gone, and when it came to battles that could provide a massive difference. Still, the Titans weren't going to underestimate the robot: he may have installed new weapons or upgraded. But after Kurai, they were certain they could handle him.

Maybe they could have. They never got the chance to find out.

It hadn't taken long for them to pinpoint where Atlas was: the racket and smoke rising from one part of Jump City had been enough of an indication. The Titans had assumed as they had rushed there that it had all been Atlas raising hell.

I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count what they found.

"Nasty robot!" Blaze said, as she kicked Atlas in the side at the bottom of the massive crater. Atlas just groaned.

"Whoa, hold it Blaze. He's done." Bolt said, trying to pull the angry young female back from delivering more kicks.

"He said I was a little bug! Not worth his time! Well now he has all the time to consider how much time I was worth while he does time…in jail!" Blaze snapped. She apparently hadn't quite mastered the art of snappy banter yet.

Police were now quizzingly peering over the edge of the crater, trying to figure out what was going on.

"It's ok officers! We beat him up! And down! And a few other directions just for the heck of it!" Blast said as he floated up, making the police recoil a bit. The Zap Pack had flown off after helping the Titans beat Kurai, and the Titans hadn't really given the police a lot of details, so the sudden appearance of the three kids had been very surprising for the officers attempting to reign in the rioting Atlas. "Nothing to worry about!"

"WHAT? DUDE? HUH?" Came a sudden yell, as Beast Boy had suddenly appeared at the edge of the crater, his hands pulling frantically at his head. "What on earth? How did you get here first? And…what…how did…dudes!" Beast Boy said, as Starfire dropped down next to him as Terra lowered herself along with Gauntlet and Robin to the ground.

"Beast Boy!" Came a joyous female cry, and then suddenly Blaze was right in front of him, causing him to rear back in surprise. "Can I ride you now? Pleasepleaseplease?"

"Uh…"

"Ah Robin! Good to see you! We figured you were coming but we thought we'd take care of the problem just in case." Blast said as he floated over.

"Yes. The robot is defeated, and if he begs to differ, I'll show him." Bolt said as he floated up from the crater.

"You beat Atlas?"

"What does it look like we did silly?" Bolt said.

"….True…um…thanks."

"You're welcome. Blaze, stop bothering Starfire."

"But her hair! Her hair!" Blaze said, her eyes filled with hero worship.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're falling for this!" Gauntlet said. All eyes turned to him.

"What do you mean Gauntlet?" Bolt asked.

"Oh no! The others might…" Gauntlet began, before Robin marched up to him, grabbed his arm, and began pulling him away. "Hey wait! I haven't started ranting yet!"

"Gauntlet, until we get some actual proof of your…theories, no wild and crazy accusations!"

"But they're the best kind!"

"GAUNTLET…they're kids." Robin said, as the Zap Pack merrily interacted with Starfire, Terra, and Beast Boy, who were clearly all charmed by the enthusiasm and admiration.

"But Robin…how did they get here before us?"

"We have good hearing." Bolt said, suddenly next to the pair. They jumped.

"Look Bolt was it? Don't do that."

"Oops, sorry. Endowed with the power of lightning and all, forget how fast I can move at times." Bolt said, grinning. Despite his tough serious leader façade, the grin made him look just as cute as Blaze.

"Right…so…you heard Atlas?" Robin asked.

"The amount of noise he was making, I think people in China heard him." Bolt replied. "So we ducked out of class and zipped over here. Reminds me, Blast Blaze! We have to go! We'll see you around Titans!" Bolt said, waving, and then the three kids flashed off into the sky and were gone, a mild sonic boom being left in their wake.

"Strong AND fast." Terra commented as she rubbed her ear.

"Guys, don't you see what they're doing? They're stealing our cases!" Gauntlet yelled.

"Dude, not having to fistfight with a giant superstrong pathologically obsessed with victory robot is a bad thing?" Beast Boy commented.

"I agree. They are so…endearing, these children, and they so dearly want to help. Why not let them?" Starfire asked.

"Oh YOU'LL SEE." Gauntlet said, his eyes glowering. "YOU'LL ALL SEE."

* * *

It was, of course, all over the evening news.

"Today Jump City got its look at three brave, young new heroes." The animated woman anchor said. Robin had never caught her name, as he didn't much care for the news: any important information that there was, it was immediately sent to him via other sources, and the rest was nonsense he'd probably be better off not hearing. Hell, half the time the news were bashing the Titans and it just ticked Robin off.

Rough camcorder footage of the Zap Pack's battle with Atlas (more like 'their transformation of Atlas into their own personal soccer ball') played for a bit before it cut back to the anchorwoman (Noel had always called her 'Perky McBullshit', Robin recalled).

"These three children, whose names were not given, defeated the robot Atlas, stopping him before the city's better known resident heroes, the Teen Titans, could arrive…"

There was the bashing: subtle but there. Robin sighed to himself and continued making notes: after the Zap Pack had left the Titans had helped escort Atlas to jail and then done a once over of the city before heading back home to rest. In a way, it was probably good the Zap Pack had taken care of Atlas: they were still pretty sore from the Kurai fight. Though the damage the child heroes had done in the short course of their fight didn't help, considering the already extensive damage that Kurai and his robots had caused. Robin would have to have a brief talk with Bolt the next time he saw him about that…

"Rumors that these children helped defeat the attacking supervillains yesterday have already begun…"

Rumors schmoomers. Robin would have been glad to tell the reporters that the Zap Pack had saved their butts, but he and the Titans had better things to do. The reporters knew that. That hadn't stopped them from ringing their phones off the hook, to the point where Robin had had to disconnect the phone lines. None of the other Titans were talking to the press: Terra's brief attempt had almost gotten her swarmed like piranhas to a bleeding wound, and she had quickly taken off and sworn never to do that again, so instead the press was spinning their silence. Sometimes, Robin wondered why he and his team stayed around this city: it seemed like more often then not they were telling him they'd be happier without him.

Well, they were just people. Robin couldn't change them, but he could change his current ignorance on the situation regarding the Zap Pack. If they weren't evil as Rob kept insisting, it wouldn't be hard to track them down: they were, after all, just kids.

"Which begs the question: are the Teen Titans going to be the victims of early retirement?"

A carefully aimed Birdarang turned the TV off, as Robin reminded himself not to watch the news in the future.

* * *

Probably for the best, as the future was a lot of the same, as the Zap Pack truly and fully burst onto the scene in Jump City.

"We finally have the name of this new team: the Zap Pack, whose members Bolt, Blast, and Blaze thwarted a robbery at the First Jump City Bank…"

* * *

The robbers burst out of the bank and ran for their cars: they were attempting a quick in and out entry to avoid the Teen Titans as they got in their car and burned rubber.

Right into Blast's foot, as he kicked the car into the air. Bolt caught it and shook the robbers into a dumpster, as Blaze caught their money and then sealed the dumpster shut with a careful flame blast so the robbers couldn't get out. The kids stuck around long enough for the police to arrive so they could give their names before they pried open the dumpster lid and took off to let the cops take in the filthy, stinking robbers.

* * *

"The Zap Pack has struck again, stopping the criminal mastermind Killer Moth from unleashing a plague of disease carrying, er, moths across Jump City…"

* * *

"Nooooooooooo!" Killer Moth lamented, looking at his destroyed moth army, their bodies burning in the streets (fortunately the new breed was nowhere as cute as Silkie). "How were you not affected by the toxin pollen?"

"We can hold our breath a long time." Blast said, and bonked the villain on the head to knock him out and leave him for the police.

* * *

"There's no keeping these kids down: the Zap Pack today thwarted a robbery by the villainous Magician Mumbo…"

* * *

"JUMBO!" The Blue skinned long noised sorcerer said, as he finished whishing the rest of the vault's money into the bag and ran for the door.

He found three small figures floating in wait.

"Well the new kids huh? Well allow me to introduce myself: MUMBO…"

WHACK! A powerful punch tossed Mumbo across the entire bank, where he crashed into a wall. Mumbo, despite his somewhat fluctuating levels of power, could be quite dangerous at times, but he had one weakness: don't let him cast a spell, and you've got a considerably easier time ahead.

"Lousy…brats…" Mumbo said, as Bunny Raven's spun around his head before he passed out.

* * *

"The Zap Pack just keeps zapping along: their new deeds are greatly helping stem any advantage villains may attempt to take of our beleaguered city after the attack by the mad Japanese teen Kurai…"

* * *

"Ha ha ha!" Adonis laughed as he tossed the last guard that had tried to protect the payroll truck aside and hoisted it up on the shoulder of his massive red mechsuit. "Goodbye student loan payments!"

"It's not nice to take what doesn't belong to you!" Came a voice from the sky, and then Adonis found his load a lot lighter as the truck was yanked from his grip. He growled and turned around to look as Blaze and Bolt put the truck down on the street. Adonis growled again.

"Little brats! You made a mistake messin' with me! Because you're little! And I'm big! So what can you do?" Adonis laughed, as he charged at the three.

Bolt slammed his hands together and fired off a bolt of lightning, stopping Adonis dead in his tracks, yelling as the electricity coursed through his suit, frying connections. Bolt stopped as Blast threw back his arms and them swung them out as he fired off a spray of piercing laser bolts that struck and blew through the suit, blowing it to pieces as Adonis crashed to the ground, unconscious.

"Hey! I wanted to do something!" Blaze complained.

"Too slow girly, too slow." Blast said, blowing on his outstretched pointer finger as Blaze sulked.

* * *

A water park was rapidly emptying as the patrons fled, screaming. Floating after the retreating park goers was the strange creature Kardiak, its tendrils flailing around as if trying to decide which of the many children around it should grab.

And then a rain of fireballs flew down from the sky, giving the strange machine pause.

"Eewwwwww! What is that!" Blaze said, looking disgusted.

"Beats me, but you so wanted the next one to be all yours, by all means, go ahead." Bolt chuckled, as Kardiak raised its 'head' and then flew up into the sky after the three children. Blaze yelped and began firing rapid-fire fireballs, but Kardiak dodged most of them and wasn't badly affected by the rest as its tendrils reached for Blaze.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" She screamed, and cut loose with a super blast of fire. It enveloped Kardiak and the strange creation vanished. Metallic ash rained down on the ground as Blaze lowered her arms. Fortunately, such an intense blast had a short range; otherwise she probably would have inadvertently nuked half the water park.

"Nice work."

"Very nice." Bolt said, as he and Blast slapped hands.

"Ewwwww." Blaze repeated.

* * *

On a beach near Jump City, the quiet surface of the water was suddenly broken by a massive wall of bubbles rising from underneath the sea, bubbles that quickly formed into emerging heads, lots of emerging heads, as Trident in all his glory emerged from the water. It had taken him and his clones a long time to burrow to freedom, but now they were free, they were armed, and they had one goal.

"CRUSH THE TITANS." All the Tridents chanted at once, as they marched up the beach. Everyone (very quickly) got out of their way, as they marched off the beach and down the street, chanting their mantra.

"CRUSH THE TITANS. CRUSH THE TITANS. CRUSH THE TITANS." The Trident army chanted as they rounded a corner.

For some time, there was silence.

The Trident army began streaming back around the corner again, though nowhere as dignified as the near military lockstep they had used to go around it originally had been. Instead, they were running like hell.

"RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!" They yelled, as several Tridents came flying around the corner, crashing into the ground and buildings, as the Zap Pack flew around the corner and continued their chase, firing their distinctive trademark attacks after the great Atlantean criminal(s).

"Come back! I always wanted to try sushi!" Blast yelled, and then fired more energy bolts at the clones, which were now diving into the sea. The Zap Pack stopped above the water as the last of them finished retreating.

"Yeah! You better run!" Blast said, waving a hand.

"And don't come back!" Blaze added.

* * *

"The Zap Pack can't do enough it seems: in addition to their previous victories, they also took down Dr. Light…!"

* * *

The Zap Pack burst through a door.

"Wha…" Said a old man with a long Santa Claus like beard before the Zap Pack tackled him and began beating him up. "OW! OW!"

Another door opened and a blue robot ran through, wiping ice cream from his mouth, as he looked around confused.

"What's going on?" Mega Man yelled.

**_THAT'S THE WRONG DOCTOR LIGHT, YOU IDIOTS!_**

"What? Huh? Oh." Bolt said, as he and his friends stopped pounding on the elderly doctor, who looked quite dazed. "Oops, sorry."

The Zap Pack flew out the door, past the still trying to puzzle it out Mega Man.

"…Hey! Come back! Your weapons would be COOL to absorb!" Mega Man yelled, running after the Zap Pack as Dr. Light groaned on the ground.

* * *

"Ha ha ha! Diamonds! So many glorious diamonds!" Said the proper, DC Comics Dr. Light, as he scooped them into a bag. "And with that blasted Raven not around, I'll be ready for anything those Titans could throw at me!"

"Maybe you shouldn't be worried about the Titans." Blast said from the door.

"Ack!" Dr. Light said, as he whirled. "Ah yes, the new children in town! It's time for you to learn you can't match the brilliance of DR. LIGHT!" Dr. Light said, as he fired off a concentrated blast at the three children. They easily dodged.

"Take a seat, dim bulb!" Blast said, as he countered with his own blast. The fact that Dr. Light wasn't as fast as the Zap Pack, not to mention the whole carrying a large sack of gems, resulted in him taking the blast to his chest and getting blown through the wall as jewels flew everywhere.

"AGGRIVATING DELINQUENTS!" Light roared as he stumbled to his feet and fired off more light blasts.

"You're the criminal here!" Blaze said as she swooped through the blasts and up close. "Hotfoot!"

Fire ignited on Light's boot.

"ARGH! OW! OW!" Light yelped as he hopped on one foot, and then Blast and Bolt were on him. The fight was, as you might say, one sided.

"Why me…" Dr. Light groaned on the ground, his suit sparking from damage, as police cars pulled up, sirens wailing.

"Zap Pack, GO!" The three kids chanted, slamming their hands together, and then they flew off.

* * *

"YOU SEE! I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU! THEY'RE STEALING ALL OUR WORK!" Gauntlet yelled, pointing at the television that was announcing the Zap Pack's latest victory.

"So we didn't have to go out and fight the villains ourselves, and hence not risk being hurt, maimed, or killed? That's work I'll gladly subcontract." Beast Boy said as he sipped a soda.

"I must say, as much as I enjoy the rush of battle, it is nice to have a brief break." Starfire said.

"But! But! They're taking our reputation!"

"What reputation? The one that we're always screwing up and causing trouble?" Robin said as he looked up from his notes.

"You know that kind of reporting is due more of a lack of news then anything!"

"I wonder…" Robin said. "Well Gauntlet, you keep insisting they're evil, but I must say, if this is an evil plan, it sure is a counterproductive and roundabout one."

"They could be eliminating the competition!"

"Rob, with their powers, they pretty much HAVE no competition." Terra said as she ate a chocolate bar on the couch.

"And this doesn't worry you? What if they turn on us?"

"Dude, have you not been paying attention? They love us."

"That's easy enough to fake!"

"Not really." Robin said from his work. "I learned from the best when interrogating criminals. I can tell falsehoods pretty well, even well acted one. I'm not getting that vibe from those kids Rob. They strike me as on the level."

"Aha! That shows how good they are! They can even fool Robin!"

"Rob, knock it off. Your theory didn't have much steam to begin with and it's losing more of it by the day. We don't need someone to replace Noel's paranoia." Beast Boy said.

"Still, it would be comforting if we could learn more about them. I've tried to contact them but no luck: they save the day and then vanish." Robin said as he shoved his wheeled chair off the table and over to the computer, where he started typing. "What I've gathered…judging from their ages, their angles of coming and going, and the layout of the city…they could be based anywhere in this area." Robin said, as he highlighted it on a map. 'This area' was a majority of the suburbs.

"Great. How many people is that?" Terra asked.

"All in all? Little over a million."

The team gaped at each other a bit (well, except Robin).

"Next time we have a membership drive, I insist we try and recruit someone with some kind of connection to the Speed Force." Starfire commented.

"Don't worry about it guys…" Robin said as he pushed off the computer and went back to his notes. "I was trained by the best. Batman and I tracked down a lot of people, including geniuses that were experts at covering their tracks, and if we can find them, then I can surely find some kids. It's just a matter of…"

_DING-DONG._

"Pizza's here!" Beast Boy said as he jumped off the couch, ran several steps…and stopped. "Wait a minute, I didn't order pizza tonight!"

The Titans looked at each other, and then they all got to their feet, Robin arming the security systems as they all headed for the door.

"See. I'll be right. Have to be right…" Gauntlet said as the five of them approached the door.

A lone envelope lay at its base.

"…Ok…doesn't the mail come in the morning?" Terra asked.

"Yeah, it does." Robin said as he removed a device from his utility belt and scanned the envelope, a light passing slowly over it. "Not reading any explosives…could be gas or something though. Everyone stay back." Robin said as he snapped on a rebreather, plugged his nostrils with wax, and adjusted his mask so nothing caustic could harm his eyes. Unsnapping a Birdarang, he slowly cut the envelope open and removed the piece of paper inside.

"…Ok guys. We're in the clear. Just a letter." Robin said as he removed the rebreather and snorted out the wax, tossing it in a nearby garbage can as his team approached him.

"What is it? A threat? A challenge? A riddle? Ohhhhh, let it be a riddle! I bet those darn kids can't match wits with Edward Nygma!" Gauntlet said.

"And you could?" Beast Boy cracked. Gauntlet looked annoyed and mock-hurt.

"Uh…no…none of those." Robin said, as the Titans gathered around him. He read it out loud in case any of the others couldn't see.

" 'Dear Teen Titans, you are cordially invited to the home of Clayton and Mary Bonaparte, to attend a dinner party with guests John and Kelly Pickard and Donna Rodkey and their children Edgar, Thomas, and Tawny…please RVSP in person or by phone, date 7:30 PM…tonight…Sincerely…Clayton Bonaparte…' " Robin said, as he lowered the letter. "…Uhhhhhh…ok, honestly wasn't expecting this."

"It's a trap!" Gauntlet said.

"Oh really. Well Admiral Ackbar, why don't you explain why it's in the middle of the suburbs, a lousy place to spring a trap as there are witnesses everywhere and room to move and so on." Robin said.

"Uh…it's a very clever trap! So clever it doesn't make any sense! Um, yeah!"

"No." Robin said, as he folded up the paper.

"Robin, do you think it's real?"

"Yeah…yeah I do. This strikes me as appropriate."

"But surely you don't think it's legit!" Gauntlet protested.

"Not entirely, no. But if it is, I'm not taking a chance: this is exactly the information I wanted. However, certain precautions will have to be taken…just in case Gauntlet's right." Robin said. "Everyone, go grab yourself a holopin, and everything we've run through when it comes to preparing for traps. I'll leave files and messages for some of our allies just in case we do disappear. And remember: just because we're preparing in case it is a trap doesn't mean it IS. In other words, don't psyche yourself out. That means you Gauntlet, if my advice is still any good for you at this stage."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Dude, you're shaking like a Mexican space shuttle!" Beast Boy pointed out.

"That's just uh…I mean…um…"

"Shall I give him a dose of the Prozac Tim?" Starfire asked.

"Ah! No Prozac!" Gauntlet said, running off. Robin looked at Starfire. "It was just a suggestion." She said defensively.

"Guess who's coming to dinner." Terra said as she and the Titans headed back to the main room. "Always wanted to say that."

* * *

The group of mothers sitting on the park bench was also contemplating dinner, even as they kept an eye on their children. Well, most of the time: it was hard to talk to someone without looking at him or her at times. Such was the case of the young mother at the end of the bench.

"She got almost all A's on her last report card. I think she may grow up to be a doctor, I do." The mother said, as she looked at her watch and contemplated what she would make for dinner. "How did your son do?"

"Don't ask." The middle mother groaned. "All he cares about is that new damn video game _Taki's Empire._ I swear, if a game isn't too violent, it's more addictive then crack!"

"My Jamie doesn't much care for video games. Gives her a headache." The third mother said.

"My Noreen prefers to read." The first mother replied, a note of pride in her voice. Though she hid it, she drank in the slightly irritated looks the other mothers gave her: ah, the subtle power games of the suburbs. Where would we be without them? Probably better off.

"Anyway dears, I have to be going…" The first mother said as she dug through her purse. "My husband gets home a little earlier today and he likes a fresh meal…"

"He doesn't get mad if there isn't one, does he?" The second mother asked.

"What? Oh no! He's too tired!" The first mother giggled. She understood the question though: It seemed these days that if there wasn't danger in the outside world there was something terrible people were hiding behind their doors. Well, she didn't have an abusive husband to worry about, as she scanned her eyes back to the playground where her daughter Noreen had been playing.

And blinked as she did not immediately pick up Noreen's bright blue shirt. Her eyes scanned the playground again…and again. No Noreen.

The mother stood up as the faint possibly began to claw at her heart…no. She was just out of sight. Any moment, she'd come back into view. Any moment at all, as she started walking forward, towards the playground, among the children, searching for hers…

And finding nothing.

The screams had just started when the inconspicuous green van began pulling away from the curb, as the mother finally gave into the realization that her daughter wasn't there. And she wasn't. She was slumped in the arms of the dark figure in the back.

"This is too easy. There's no thrill in it." The holder complained to the driver.

"Patience partner. We're just about done. And then they'll be more thrills then you could ever live in your lifetime."

"I doubt that." The holder chuckled. "I doubt that a lot."

_To Be Continued_


	30. Youth of the Nation: Wild Child

Chapter 32: Wild Child

His name was Mr. Patterson. He had a nice wife, a 12 year old son who had just started in the business of adolescent embarrassment of his parents, a fairly decent job, and a golden retriever he was currently taking out for a walk. His life could be described as completely normal. He didn't have a problem with that.

So he was, as you might have expected, surprised to go round some thick bushes in the park he was walking her through, as Ellie, his dog, looked for a place to do her business…and found five costumed teenagers kneeling in the dirt while discussing something, all of whom looked up as he showed up.

He looked at them. They looked back.

"…We didn't see anything if you didn't!" Beast Boy said.

"…Yeah." Mr. Patterson said, as he nudged Ellie away, slowly walking back around the bushes. "Yeah, sure…"

"Where did that come from?" Robin asked. "What did we see? Failure to pick up waste?"

"Nope, he did that." Terra said, peeking through the bush.

"I'll let him figure that out." Beast Boy replied.

"…Ok." Robin said. "It is currently 7:20…Rob stop grinning like a fool."

"You're finally listening to me!"

"I am taking precautions for an unknown situation! We have no idea if that letter really came from legitimate solutions, so stop acting as if I have suddenly bought your theory!"

"But, but…"

"Rob, mouth, shut, please." Robin said, as he picked up his staff. "Since I hate being rude, as we didn't RSVP to the letter as asked, for obvious reasons, we need to go to that house, across the street." Robin said, as he pointed and then began drawing in the dirt with his staff, attacking sticks and rubbish to help define things. "So, in final review…this is the park we are currently in, this is the street, these are the houses across from the street, and this is the house that has the address on the letter."

"What's that?" Terra said, pointing to a pebble that was near the inviting house.

"…That's a rock." Robin said as he picked it up and tossed it aside. "Now, seeing how they may be expecting us but we have no idea how much so, I, wearing my holopin disguise, will go across the street and knock on the door. Normally we would send Gauntlet because he has the greatest protection, but this time he will not be used as primary contact because certain elements feel he cannot be trusted to not immediately start throwing accusations like a Salem, Massachusetts resident."

"Hey! I don't do that! Are you saying I do that?"

"You did it at least four times today!"

"…Ok, before today, I never did that!"

"You did it at least ten times yesterday!"

"Ok, well…"

"Quiet." Robin said. "I will, just to appease CERTAIN people, wear my helmet so that if knocking on the door somehow prompts a response that involves bullets or explosions my head will be protected. Should I indeed be attacked, Starfire will retrieve me and we will retreat back to this park to drive attention away from the surrounding houses and the innocent people we do not want to hurt inside them. If I am somehow yanked inside the house, Beast Boy will follow. You are not ALL to go chasing after me if such a thing happens: we are low on numbers and can't all afford to be captured. However, this is ONLY if anything happens to me immediately. Should nothing happen, I will proceed to introduce you, in various ways, to the environment, where I will let you know via hand signals, what I think of the situation. I feel the need to repeat that I decide it is kosher, everyone will be on their best behavior. That means Kory, you need to remember not to burp loudly at the table, Gar you shouldn't turn into any animals at the table, and Rob, well, maybe you should just pretend to have suffered vocal chord damage."

"Ha ha. It's so comforting my teammates have trust in me."

"We trust you fine Rob. But that doesn't mean we agree with you, especially in regards to this theory."

"But since we are going to all this trouble as part of a general threat preparation routine, should we perhaps not send in a decoy to see what comes out?" Starfire asked.

"What kind of a decoy?"

"Oh! Oh!" Gauntlet said. "I know!"

* * *

Ding dong…

A man answered the door.

"Hey there!" Gauntlet said dressed up in a suit as he walked in. "Don't you hate it when huge amounts of dirt suddenly show up on your carpet, LIKE SO…" Gauntlet said as he dumped a tray of dirt on the ground. "Then you need the OmegaSuk 9000! It'll make floors so clean, they actually repel food…"

* * *

"NO." Robin said. "And besides, you're about 40 years out of date, Mr. Candide. Do vacuum cleaner salesmen even exist any more?"

"Maybe something timeless?"

* * *

Ding dong…

Same man. Who is he? Who knows.

"Hello!" Starfire said, dressed as a girl scout. "I am NOT Starfire of the Teen Titans. I am um…Star…shine…of the Wilderness girls! I am not Starfire, of the Titans! Would you like to buy some cookies? Did I mention I am NOT Starfire of the Teen Titans?"

* * *

"…Somehow that strikes me as counterproductive." Robin said.

"I got one! I got one!" Beast Boy said.

* * *

Ding dong…

The man, his doorbell, he answers…but why?

And he found…a green turkey.

"Gobble gobble." Beast Boy said.

* * *

Robin just stared at Beast Boy. So did everyone.

"…It was different!" Beast Boy said.

"Forget a decoy, I'm just going to go up there, hope for the best, and expect the worst." Robin said, as he stood up. He slipped on his motorcycle helmet, and then by adjusting his holopin, he altered his appearance so he looked like a smart young Asian man in nice casual clothes.

"You know what to do if it's the worst." Robin said, and left the group, as he crossed the street.

Strangely, he found himself a bit nervous as he approached the door. Figured. Master assassin? No fear. Evil darkness demi-god? Just more determined to win. Hideous mutating monster? More afraid of being bored then of it. But this could be just a group of normal families who had invited him to dinner and maybe wanted his help…maybe that was what scared him. Maybe it meant he was growing up.

Just in case, he did not ring the doorbell: he knocked instead.

A few seconds passed, and the door opened.

Robin found himself having to look up on the man. He was tall and very broad-shouldered, a pure construction worker type, with a head of wild hair and a big thick bushy black beard. He looked like he'd just stepped out of a forest after chopping down some trees, if you didn't count that he was dressed semi-formally.

"…Can I help you?" The man rumbled.

"…Um…Mr. Bonaparte?" Robin said, picking the first name on the list.

"Yes. If you're selling something I'm sorry we're expecting company…"

"Mr. Bonaparte, I am the company."

"…Excuse me?"

"You are the father of one of the Zap Pack?"

"…You're not one of the Titans." Clayton Bonaparte said, as he took a step back, his hand starting to go to the side as if reaching for a weapon.

"Yes I am! It's me, Robin! I'm just wearing…a disguise!"

"You don't say." Bonaparte said. "Why?"

"Well uh sir…forgive me, but the days when we could just all go out in public in costume aren't so common anymore. We have to be careful. We didn't want to attract any attention."

"Maybe…"

"Are the Titans here Dad?" Came an excited voice from the back.

"Hold on Edgar." Bonaparte called over his shoulder. "Please…I understand…but I need proof."

Robin offered his communicator.

"This is nice but doesn't really prove anything: I don't know what these are supposed to look like…"

"Is it them?" Came the excited voice again. Robin sighed and took a chance.

"Sorry." Robin said, as he pulled out the holopin. "This is altering my appearance."

And with a twist, Robin turned it off, quickly pulling off his helmet.

"You can break this if you want to make sure it's not another hologram." Robin offered, but Clayton's face had relaxed.

"No…that's ok. That will do. Sorry for being suspicious, I understand you can't be too careful…"

"Yeah, I know."

"Where are the others? Is it just you?"

"Oh no, they're…coming. But we just wanted to make sure no one noticed anything unusual…so um sir, could I come in?"

"Oh certainly." Bonaparte said, and stood aside.

Robin walked through, his instincts on maximum, ready for anything…

Except what happened.

As Robin was suddenly bowled over.

But Clayton Bonaparte had not proven to have treachery in his intentions. No, instead Robin had been knocked over by three very excited children.

"Robin you came I can't believe it you're here you're here!" Said a young blonde boy who was quite recognizable as Blast without his gold costume.

"Edgar! Behave! He's still company!" Bonaparte said.

"Oh right sorry! Come on guys!" Edgar Bonaparte, aka Blast, said as he pulled his two companions, Bolt and Blaze, off with him. Robin couldn't help but chuckle to himself: there they were, all dressed up, Blaze even having a ribbon in her hair. It reminded Robin of his young days…days long gone.

"Where's everyone else? Where's Starfire?" Blaze asked excitedly, nearly hopping up and down.

"Oh they're coming. They'll be here soon."

"Yayyyyyyyy!"

"Tawny, don't bother our guests. Come help set the table."

"Ok!" Blaze, aka Tawny, as she lifted up and flew off. Like they were attached to her, Edgar (Blast) and Bolt (what was his name? Thomas, Robin thought he recalled) went with her, all by air.

"I'm still getting used to that." Bonaparte said: now that he wasn't so suspicious, it was clear that Clayton was a Paul Bunyan type: big and burly, but also quite friendly. "Thank you for coming. These days…it doesn't seem like people trust each other very much."

"I'll be honest with you Mr. Bonaparte: you haven't fully earned my trust yet." Robin said. "But you're getting there. And trust ME, that says a lot."

"I bet it does." Bonaparte said, and clapped Robin on the back. "Hope you like meat loaf."

Surprisingly, Robin did not feel the urge to tense up, as if ready for an attack.

That, more then anything, gave him the comfort that he had been right.

* * *

Roughly twenty minutes later, Robin found himself and the rest of the Titans sitting around two large tables shoved together. Terra had been the second one in, disguised as what appeared to be an older female friend, followed by Beast Boy, who had snuck in as an insect (supposedly to surprise the Zap Pack, in reality to check for any traps: a hand signal denoted he had found none) and then popped up, which had indeed delighted the Zap Pack. Gauntlet and Starfire had shown up last, disguised as a couple (which Robin hoped would distract Gauntlet away from his conspiracy theory). The Titans had swiftly found themselves sitting down to supper (after some subtle distractions allowed Robin to test both the dinnerware and the food for poison. He found none, and oddly now even felt a little bad for checking).

While Clayton may have had the last name of a famous French war leader, it appeared he was probably more likely descended from a French fur trapper rather then a diminutive general whose brilliant military mind probably never made up for a gigantic case of phallic shame. His wife Mary was a woman whose overweight body would be far more pleasantly described as 'plump' and 'healthy' rather then the nasty term of 'fat', the type who would gladly watch over a brood of grandchildren, the pleasant matron, who fit in with Clayton's image like a puzzle piece. John and Kelly Pickard, parents of Thomas (Bolt) were more of a study in opposites: John was a serious black man with a close cut haircut and eyeglasses that reminded Robin of Malcolm X, while his wife was white and not as stoic, with long black hair and a very pleasant face. If Donna Rodkey, Tawny (Blaze's mother) mother had a significant other, he wasn't there: she was a somewhat petite redhead with freckles. They were all dressed for company, which made Robin feel a bit silly to be sitting at their table in full costume, cape and mask included, but the Zap Pack seemed to love it: while they were clearly on 'best behavior' their excitement vibrated through their expressions and their body language. Robin had wisely sat Gauntlet away from them and the parents, and had given him a throat slashing motion to let Gauntlet know he wasn't kidding. Gauntlet seemed to be behaving so far, but his cool friendliness in contrast to his usual explosive joviality bothered Robin a bit: it wasn't like Gauntlet to believe something so thoroughly if it didn't have much of a base.

But he was putting on a polite front, which Robin supposed he should be grateful for.

"Would one of you like to say grace?" Mary asked. Robin suddenly felt awkward: uh oh, none of them really had any experience in that area…

"Oh!" Starfire said, as she raised her hand. "How did that go…oh yes! Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub!"

A moment of silence.

And then Clayton exploded with laughter, pounding the table.

"I think that's the best version of Grace I've ever heard."

"But dad you've heard it before."

"Yes Edgar but that had something special. Like you." Clayton said. "Amen."

"Amen." Everyone echoed, as they started to eat (thankfully, the preparers of the meal had salad for Beast Boy, which he gracefully took: just because he was a master of tofu didn't mean everyone was).

"So, you are the Teen Titans." Clayton said.

"Last time I checked Mr. Bonaparte."

"Call me Clay, Robin. Everyone else does. I assume you want us to call you by your 'public names'."

"Please." Robin said.

"Would you like some wine?" Mary asked, as she went around the table.

"Um…actually none of us are at the legal age yet…"

"You're old enough for a touch." Mary said, as she poured a slight dollop in every wine glass.

"Oh, thank you." Robin said, as he glanced at Starfire, who nodded with her eyes, and when she was offered the glass she immediately sipped it, while all the other Titans only pretended to: Starfire's alien constitution, if the wine was poisoned (Tim had already checked the glasses), would handle it much better, if not neutralize it entirely, and if anything happened she'd be in fighting form…in theory.

"So…are there usually not more of you?" John asked, his tone more reserved then Clayton's "We're all family for this" tone.

"Um yes…three of our members are currently uh…on assignment." Robin said.

"When will Cyborg be back?" Thomas asked.

"Um soon…"

"Thomas don't interrupt when grown ups are talking." Kelly Pickard said.

"But I didn't! I waited until he had STOPPED talking!"

"He's got you there." Beast Boy said.

"Don't encourage him." John replied, though his tone was a bit friendlier then before.

"So, I suppose you want some information on just why we invited you here." Clayton said.

"Well, we have some idea, but yes." Robin said.

"Well, as you've seen, our children have all recently become…a bit more then before."

"That's one way of putting it. They really saved our hides." Terra said.

"Yes they told us all about it." John said.

"And YOU said we were exsahergrating Dad!" Thomas said.

"Exaggerating Thomas."

"Ok!"

"Well, it's really not much of a story. Mary and I moved here 18 months ago, give or take. Donna's mother lived next to us, Donna was with her about five months later, and about two weeks after that John and Kelly moved in next door. Our three kids pretty much came together like magnets." Clayton said: the Zap Pack grinned. "Then, about six weeks ago…you remember the meteor shower?"

"Somewhat."

"Something landed in the park across from our house."

"I don't recall any reports."

"No one saw it. It just came down…bump. Like it was trying to be quiet." Clayton said. "The kids were on a sleepover, they were possibly the only ones who saw it…and decided to play hero."

"You found something and picked it up?" Robin asked, looking at the kids: they shook their heads while grinning in the ways kids do when they lucked into something good without a place for them to be blamed for breaking rules.

"They found a small crater…and there was this metal…thing in it. But they didn't touch it…it went to them. Or so they say." John said.

"DAAAAAA-D." Thomas said.

"I didn't go in the crater, I just bent over to look…and the metal thing flew out of the hole and into my hands. It was scary, so Tom and Tawn, they tried to pull it off…and then there was this really big flash." Edgar said.

"And weird words." Tawny added.

"And then it fell down, and we had powers." Thomas finished.

"…So that was it?" Gauntlet finally spoke.

"Well yes, Mr. Gauntlet, pretty much." Donna said, speaking herself. "We didn't realize it at first: we took them to the hospital to have them looked at, we didn't see any differences…but next week Edgar asked to help his dad fix the car…"

"And he turned the car right onto its roof. I nearly had a heart attack!" Clayton laughed.

"…Uh yeah…I can see the basis." Robin replied.

"We thought that if Edgar suddenly had powers, maybe we would too! And we did!" Tawny said.

"We could fly!"

"And shoot beams!"

"And be real strong!"

"It was definitely a few interesting weeks." Kelly said.

"So…you want to be heroes?" Terra asked.

"Of course!"

"What brought them together is they all idolized you." Clayton said. "They were always playing games, pretending to be you…"

"Argh!" Gauntlet said, as he suddenly jerked back, his shirt soaked with wine. "Oops, sorry."

"Oh I'm sorry dear! Let me get that for you!" Mary said as she stood up and tried to help Gauntlet.

"No no, it's ok…got it covered." Gauntlet said, as his gauntlet went from ring to armored form. "Though…have a bathroom?"

"Right this way." Mary said. Robin tried to give Gauntlet a warning look, but before he could he was gone. Damn, he REALLY hoped that had been a genuine accident and not the alternative.

"Sorry about that." Mary said as she returned.

"No problem." Robin said, trying to keep the terseness out of his voice: what were the odds it was anything BUT the alternative?

"I admit, I didn't want them to do anything…but…well, they were persistent." John said.

"They kept talking about all the ways they could help…we tried to get them to put it off, but when there was that attack by those robots…well, it happened."

"But they did well. Much to our relief." Clayton said.

"Right?" Mary asked.

The Zap Pack all looked at Robin.

"…Well yes, they did very well." Robin said. The Zap Pack all grinned.

"So then, that's our story and why we invited you." Clayton said, as he took more meatloaf. "What's yours?"

"…Well, you understand why we can't give you as detailed a description…"

"We know!"

"Secret identities!" Tawny piped up after Edgar.

"…Ok." Robin said. The Titans spent the next fifteen minutes talking about themselves: Gauntlet returned about halfway through, and even added to the conversation, briefly. He'd been gone a relatively short time, maybe it HAD been an accident…

The dinner was over about then, as Mary began removing the plates, as Robin finished talking about Batman…and then he noticed Clayton giving him a certain look. Robin knew what it meant.

"Ok kids, time for dessert!" Mary said. The kids cheered, as Robin glanced at Starfire. Within seconds she and Terra had accompanied them out of the room, the young children yelling joyfully.

"…I assume there are certain things you didn't want to discuss in front of them." Robin said.

"Yeah…kids. They learn how to act from you, but if they don't understand the actions…" Clayton said. "Mr. Robin, you must understand, despite my enthusiasm, that is still my son. And he suddenly has incredible power. And I'm scared…half the time I think it won't be enough and half the time I think it will be too much…he still listens to me, but if he doesn't…I can't discipline him any more, not if he doesn't want to be. So we invited you."

"You'd like our help." Robin said.

Starfire poked her head into the room.

"Gauntlet! They would like to ask you something!"

"Huh, what? Oh, ok." Gauntlet said, as he stood up and left the room, leaving only Robin and Beast Boy.

"We've had our children tested repeatedly since the incident, different doctors…the medical records show nothing. But…still…" Kelly said.

"Thomas' original mother…she died when he was four. I remarried four years later…while I think I raised Thomas well, that he's mature for his age and understands…I wonder…what if he thinks his new power can bring his mother back? And what could happen when he realizes even it can't do that?" John said.

"Indeed. Same with Donna's daughter…do you mind Donna?" Clayton asked.

"Go ahead Clay." Donna said quietly.

"Donna came here to escape her ex…he was…not a good man. We think Tawny doesn't know too much…but with the power she has now, she may think knowing doesn't matter, because she can DO…and the things she COULD do in her lack of understanding…it's scary, Mr. Robin."

"I know."

"Plus, we have no idea on the nature of this: how long will these powers last? What were they? A gift? A mistake? Something else? The kids say they heard voices speaking to them when it happened, but they couldn't understand them…was it some kind of alien language? Did these powers come from another planet, like Superman? We don't know…but we were wondering if you could try and see if you fared any better."

"Do you still have the metal object?"

"Yes, and everything else: medical records, what I've managed to look up on the Internet, I'll gladly provide it all…but Robin, we need more then research."

"We'd like your help. Our kids want to be heroes…can you teach them to be heroes?" Donna asked.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, they seem to have a pretty good idea already." Beast Boy said.

"Thank you Mr…Boy, that is comforting but…it's not what we meant." Kelly said. "I'm talking about the side of crime fighting that people don't see very often. The bad side…like the one that almost kept us from moving here. We saw first-hand what the Final Night did. And as powerful as our children are now, they're still just children. They wouldn't understand…and I don't think we could teach them."

"But you…they worship you. They'll listen to you. And you have…more experience then us." Clayton said. "I'm sorry, I don't want you to think that we're trying to hoist our child rearing duties on you…"

"I know. I understand." Robin said quietly. "…There are a lot of bad things out there. Things children wouldn't understand, things children shouldn't be exposed to…but sometimes you can't prevent those things from reaching out…unless you know the signs." Robin said. "…Ok Mr. Bonaparte. We'll try and help you."

"Thank you…"

"BUT…I will be honest." Robin said. "We, and I, am going to be very thorough. If we find anomalies, we will investigate them. Because as nice as your meal was…well, I trained under Batman. I just want to be sure."

"We know." John said.

"But, if you check out…sure, sirs, ma'ams. Believe me, we wouldn't mind helping raise the next generation, especially when they could do a lot of good."

"I know they can." Clayton said. "Actually, despite my fears…I knew it from the moment I learned to accept it. They're good kids. They'll do good things."

* * *

Gauntlet felt that maybe he should feel some guilt. But he didn't, as he crept over the lawn.

The wine knocking over, as one may have guessed, was no accident. Gauntlet had spent ten seconds cleaning himself up and the rest carefully checking the entire house. He'd found nothing, but the fact that so many people were in it severely limited his options on what he could search. So, after extracting himself from his teammates and the evil aliens/robots/clones/cloned alien robots/whatever the Zap Pack were, he hadn't decided yet, saying he needed to use the washroom again, he'd found a window and crept across the lawn to the house next door.

The Gauntlet made breaking in easy: he didn't even need to damage anything, just form a strand so small it could sneak through cracks and open a window on the other side. He wasn't sure which house this belonged to, but it was pretty dark, so he assumed that it was empty, as he snuck around. He had a specific target.

And he found it.

"I had a dog, and his name was…jackpot." Gauntlet said, as he opened the door to the kid's room. "Just wait Robin…ah ha! Proof immediately! The room…IS CLEAN! A kid's room is NEVER clean! My mom called MY room the Temple of Doom, because only Indiana Jones would have the guts to enter it! Look at this!" Gauntlet said, as he snapped pictures with a camera. "The bed is MADE! There is NO kid who…oh." Gauntlet said, as he lifted the blanket and found the sheets and pillow were a mess, the covering clearly just tossed over. "Well, that still doesn't explain the freakish neatness of this room…" Gauntlet went on, as he opened the closet…

And was buried in garbage.

"Mental note: the absence of evidence does not always mean the evidence of absence." Gauntlet said, as he dug his way out and shoveled the junk back in. "But believe me Watson, the game's not only afoot, its aleg!…No. Afeet!…Nah. Ashoe! Dammit Holmes, you need more easily modifiable lines…" Gauntlet said, as he went through the drawers. "Aha! The clothes…ARE FOLDED! And look…NO COMIC BOOKS! How could a child who loves heroes not have any comics? It's BLASPHEMY!" Gauntlet said, as he took pictures. "Now…what other evils shall I locate…aha! A plant on the windowsill! And it is HEALTHY! No child has the brains to…"

And then Gauntlet heard it. Footsteps.

Someone was in the house.

And heading his way.

"Oh dear! But despite this new predicament, the brave REAL hero Robert Candide's incredible brain, the magnificent vehicle that it is, will swiftly speed him towards a solution!"

And Gauntlet…grabbed the curtain and hid behind it.

A few seconds passed.

"Robert Candide is now questioning if his vehicle may be suffering from vapor lock." Gauntlet said, as he whirled out of the curtains. "But no matter! Another option has presented itself!"

And Gauntlet began squirming under the bed.

He did manage to make it all the way under.

It was at that point that he realized the bed was almost balancing on his back, it was so small. He was far too big to hide under it.

"Robert Candide insists that the real reason for abandoning option no 2 has to do with dust bunnies and not other, more obvious facts." Gauntlet said, as he pulled himself back out. The footsteps were getting close…as Gauntlet spied the closet.

"Aha! It's so obvious!" Gauntlet said, and jumped in, closing the door.

A moment later, whoever it was entered the room.

"…Aha!" Gauntlet said in an extremely low whisper. "They may glance at the bottom groove to check for feet! Therefore, let there be no feet!"

And Gauntlet grabbed the bar hanging above his head and dangled from it, holding his feet off the ground. He was very pleased with himself.

For about a second.

Then the bar groaned.

"Query: is the average clothes-hanging bar enough to carry the weight of a 215 pound male?"

CRASH! The bar snapped, dumping Gauntlet on the ground as all the clothes fell onto him and the door crashed open as all the junk fell out.

"Answer: no! See kids, you learn something new every day!" Gauntlet said.

"But you apparently learn nothing."

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Gauntlet said, as he reared up…and found Robin standing there. "Robin! You followed…I mean you finally agreed with me!"

"No, I didn't. I knew something was wrong the second I walked into the room and found you gone, and it wasn't very hard to track you, Rob. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU INSANE? Or just stupid?"

"Stupid like a fox!" Gauntlet replied. "Look! This kid has RECIPE books hidden in his closet! Do you know what this means?"

"He likes to cook?"

"No! Well maybe yes! But still…" Gauntlet said, as he waved the book around…as it flew open, and several comic books spilled out. "…Argh!"

"Gauntlet…" Robin began.

"Oh wait wait!" Gauntlet said, as he bounded over to the window. "See? This kid has a plant! And it's HEALTHY! Come on, no child can sit still long enough to keep a boring plant alive…" Gauntlet trailed off as Robin walked over, fished in a bag near the windowsill, and extracted a piece of paper.

"Rosa's Flowers and Gardening. A receipt. Dated yesterday." Robin said. Gauntlet stared. "Gauntlet, enough. We are going to VERY quickly clean up this mess, and then sneak back and hope no one sees us, and we are going to spent a little more time with the Zap Pack and their families, and then when we get home you and I are going to have a talk. This was kind of funny beforehand Robert, but I draw the line at breaking and entering."

"But Tim! You don't get it…!"

"GAUNTLET. ENOUGH." Robin said. "CLEAN. QUICK. NOW."

"But…"

"Gauntlet, no reason Noel ever gave made me consider removing you from the Titans. You, by yourself, now, actually are. Keep that in mind." Robin said, as he turned and left.

Gauntlet stood there for a bit, and then he pulled out his book, The Junior Heroes' Guide To Plot Cycles.

"Chapter 17: So the leader of your team thinks you're a paranoid psycho. Remember above all else: just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Stick to your guns, and you will be proven right in the end. Oh where would I be without you little book?"

Probably a lot more normal.

"HEY! Just because you don't have Noel here so he can bitch and moan and angst and make speeches, doesn't mean you have to start editorializing!"

Fine, fine.

* * *

In a nearby mall, a certain kind of panic was starting all over again, even as the figure rushed out a side door and into the green van, which calmly drove off.

"Two in one day is FAR more risk then I am willing to take." The driver said.

"You don't take risks at all. That's why I'M here. And I'm going crazy." The kidnapped said, as he put the young knocked-out male child he had snatched next to the unconscious female. "I'm tired of waiting. Isn't this enough?"

"Do you want maximum profit? Then no. We need a lot."

"Surely one or two…"

"NO. No deviating from the plan. We already risked enough with this two in one day snatch."

"I was wearing your dumb cloaking device. How can we fail with…"

"In many ways. Patience is a virtue, dear boy. Just wait. Soon, this city will be ours."

* * *

"Oh great, what is this, an intervention?" Gauntlet asked: the Titans had been back at the tower for about ten minutes now, and when Robin had come for his talk he'd brought the whole team.

"Maybe. Rob, look. You're a Titan. Your opinion should be as valuable to us as mine. That's why I always shot Noel down when his words were laced with too much personal bias against you. But Rob…are you all right? You didn't suffer a head injury while fighting Kurai, did you?" Robin asked, wishing Raven wasn't gone, or that the team had a doctor so he could check.

"Robin, I'm not joking. There is something not right with those three kids."

"They seemed friendly enough." Starfire said. "Their parents too."

"Yeah dude. I mean, my animal morphing talent I often have a better sixth sense if something is wrong…I'm not getting anything Rob. I can't see why you're so worried."

"Guys, think. These are three kids who outclass us in spades. And their parents not only know about their heroing, they want us to help them out? This isn't Ubertron, you know. Parents in situations like this freak out: they don't personally sew their kids' costumes."

"You weren't there for all of it Rob: Clay explained it…"

"Oh you're on a first name basis now huh?"

"Gauntlet. Let me finish." Robin said. "Mr. Bonaparte has enough wherewithal to know that if you tell a kid not to do something, they will very often want to do it, and these are kids who don't have the same limits other children do! If they want something, they could just take it! And you know exactly what happens when great power doesn't have great responsibility. These kids are too young to have learned proper responsibility yet, but it is something we can teach them. And if their powers are temporary, we can protect them if they disappear at a bad time. Believe me, the parents aren't jumping for joy with their decision. But it's the best one, and we have a part in it. Ok, so maybe it's not the 'normal' reaction, but it's probably the best reaction."

"…You do realize what they've done, don't you?" Gauntlet said.

"Who's they?"

"Robin, Robin. You said you valued my opinion, so hear me out." Gauntlet said, as he stood up. "Now, who leads this team? You. You were trained by Batman. You were taught to be a detective and a manhunter. I've seen you pull shit that would make CSI writers blush. So, if someone was going to try and trick us, and actually had any brains on how to try and do it, what would they do? MAKE SURE THEY FOOLED YOU."

"Rob…"

"No really Tim! Really! In a way, you're the only one whose suspicions matter! Me, well, I'm goofy Rob Candide, I don't take anything seriously, therefore I can never be serious. Same with the rest of the team! If Kory's suspicious, well, she's an alien. If Tara's suspicious, well, she's a blonde."

"Hey!"

"Nothing personal, just making a point. If Gar's suspicious, well, similar reasons like mine. If any of us suspect something, our views can be undermined by who we are, sort of like how you take a risk when you have convicted criminals testifying. But YOU? You're ROBIN. If YOU suspect something, then it MUST have some weight. And likewise, you think everything's A-Ok? Then what does it matter if any of us don't think so? Hell, if Noel was still here, even his opinion could be dismissed due to him being a grumpy paranoid meanie, not to speak ill of the gone, but still. The only other ones who might be considered if they thought something was off would be…Cyborg and Raven…who ARE CONVENIENTLY NOT HERE. My god! This goes back even farther then I realized!"

"Gauntlet…"

"I mean, man! They might have helped arranged Noel's incident too…"

Robin slammed his staff down on the table, shutting Gauntlet up.

"This is interesting Rob, but so is Oliver Stone's JFK movie. Just because it's interesting doesn't mean it's right. I know plans can be complicated, but this one has too many uncertain variables. How did they KNOW Raven and Cyborg were going to leave, at the time they did? How did they KNOW I wouldn't be suspicious? Here's the thing about plans by intelligent minds, Rob: they usually don't involve much risk, because the people planning them don't like uncertainties." Robin said. "I have not just decided to accept this. I am going to investigate. I have the debris that crashed that supposedly gave them their powers, I took soil samples from the ground, I have the records they gave me and I'm going to make damn sure they didn't leave anything out or alter them with my computer, and hell I'll even interview the houses around them to make sure the neighbors' accounts match theirs. If something is wrong, I WILL FIND IT."

"No, Robin. You WON'T." Gauntlet said. "They won't let you. Because they want to make sure that YOU are pacified."

"Oh for God's sake!" Robin exploded. "OK, Gauntlet. Fine. I will let you investigate yourself. BUT, BUT, BUT…" Robin said, heavily stressing the word. "I want SOLID, TANGIBLE PROOF. I don't want wild theories, I don't want guesses or predictions, I don't care whatever nonsense you pull out of a book or a pamphlet…"

"But pamphlets have been shown to be accurate 68.4 percent of the time! Here's a pamphlet on it." Gauntlet said. Robin glared and Gauntlet hurriedly put it away.

"Like I said Gauntlet. SOLID. As a ROCK. If you come to me with a theory that we're being set up by superpowered dwarves who have hired actors to serve as their parents to distract us while they try and retrieve Blackbeard's gold that is buried under our tower in service of the Illuminati or the Skull and Bones Society…well, Gauntlet, I don't like punishment. That doesn't mean I won't dish it out. Got it?"

"Ok, fine." Gauntlet said, sulking a bit.

"Good. I'm glad we had this talk. Now, it's late, and we have no idea what tonight and tomorrow may bring, so I suggest we all try and get some rest. I will be doing some research tonight however, so no turning that around on me." Robin said, and left the room.

"…You guys don't think I'm completely off base, do you?" Gauntlet asked.

"Uh…well…" Beast Boy said.

"I believe you are not a liar or an attention seeker Rob, but this theory you have, even I believe it is…what is that expression…the canine having to run far for retrieval?" Starfire said.

"Farfetched Kory…and come on guys. Really!"

"Rob…I spent months on the street. Half the time I was surrounded by the scum of the Earth. I learned very quickly that if I felt safe, it probably was safe…I didn't feel anything with the Zap Pack and their parents. Maybe I am a 'blonde', but that's how I felt." Terra said.

"So dude, maybe you are right…but you're the only one who thinks so." Beast Boy said, and yawned. "Man, too much fast food, a traditional home cooked meal makes me sleepy…think I'll turn in."

"Home cooked? You didn't even look at the meat." Terra teased.

"Hey, I had potatoes. Those were good…" Beast Boy said as he and Terra wandered off.

"…I believe I will rotate through as well, Friend Rob." Starfire said, as she floated off. Gauntlet sighed.

"That's turn in Star. Turn in." Gauntlet said, but by then the room was empty.

* * *

A few hours later, Gauntlet entered the kitchen to see if by some miracle there was some ice cream left when he noticed the main command room slash den was still aglow, and he walked in to find Robin at the computer, typing rapidly.

"I know you told us not to give you your own advice, but it is starting to get late Tim. What happened? I don't suppose…"

"No Rob. I've run some tests…nothing yet. And the records check out. And remember, I'm good with computers. It would take a genius to fool me." Robin said. "Running more tests, but that's the backburner stuff. While I was doing my investigation I got an email from the police department."

"About what?"

"They contacted me…in the past two weeks there have been four kidnappings. Young children, all of them. Normally they wouldn't say anything to us, our investigations tend to deal with the metahuman and 'unusual' front…but one of the officers emailed us asking for help…he said there were a couple of links. No ransom demands. Nothing in the friends or relatives front. And no dead bodies. Which rules out profit, personal reasons, and, fingers crossed here, sexual or sadistic reasons. But still, that's not that unusual, but I decided to do a little research…and my computer's a lot better and better connected then theirs. Check it out." Robin said, and hit the button as a map of Jump City appeared and scanned out as X's began appearing.

Gauntlet drew in a slow breath. There were at least 30…all in Jump City and its surrounding areas.

"How did we not hear of this before?"

"Because at the time no one thought they were connected…Gauntlet this has been going on for nearly two months. They all have similar trademarks: no ransom, nothing from people close to them, no bodies…now that could mean nothing…but you weren't here the last time we put together a series of seemingly unconnected events spread all over the area around us. The last time that happened, we beat up one of our teammates and then got our asses handed to us by a psycho Australian. I don't know if this means something bad will happen to us here…but it's not a normal cluster of statistics. And this isn't Derry, Maine."

"No. Can I help?"

"I got it. I'll wake you if anything breaks. Until then, I'm going be up with this."

"Try and get at least two hours." Gauntlet said, as he walked off. Man, just when you think you have a serious problem, along comes life to remind you that serious problems can hide behind a whole variety of factors, sometimes only ferreted out by a keen eye. Still…hmmmm, he wondered…

Gauntlet went back to his room as Robin continued his furious computer work. From the look in his eye, he appeared he was going to ignore Gauntlet.

* * *

The next day was quiet.

"…Ha ha! And this is over! It's over…it's over? What? HOW! NO!" Beast Boy yelled as Terra zipped past him and won the race. "How did…I mean…you never…HOW?"

"Oh Gar, you don't seem to understand. You went into this thinking you had someone new you could consistently beat. But the truth is, this is just someone new to remind you how much you consistently suck." Terra said, grinning.

"You cheated! You hacked!"

"With what?"

"…That's it! We're switching to Super Ultra Championship Turbo Sidewalk Combat 5 5/8!" Beast Boy yelled as he went to switch games.

"Well at least this is back to normal." Starfire said as she fed Silkie, who giggled happily. The door opened, and she hoped she would see Robin, who had joined her very late last night and been gone when she woke up, back on the computer in a case that had bothered him. But it was Gauntlet, who sat on the couch and yawned.

"I am so bored." Gauntlet complained. "This is another complaint I must register: if the Zap Pack aren't evil, and are doing our jobs all the time, then what good are we?"

"Are we not overdue for a vacation?" Starfire asked.

"Maybe, but still, argh." Gauntlet said. "Why won't anyone listen to me?"

"Oh come on Gar, pick someone else, your Zen is too darn weak! Here comes the only combo you know about ten times!"

"Quiet! I'll show you who sucks, I'll beat you with a character I'm terrible at…"

"We are listening Friend Robert, but there is a difference between listening and believing." Starfire said. "Friend Rob, remember what Robin said several days ago. He does not want this team to fragment…and Rob…you are shaking the ship."

"Rocking the boat. Look Kory, have you ever known me to get behind something so seriously if I myself didn't take it seriously?"

"Well, I am not fully sure of the criteria, but I can recall at least several instances where you devoted your time and energy to something that wouldn't be considered rational or credible…"

"Argh. Damn and blast."

FLAWLESS VICTORY.

"Boo-yah!" Terra taunted.

"WHAT? You GAMESHARK-USIN' CATCHPHRASE-STEALING SUNNAVA…!" Beast Boy mock-complained as he and Terra got into a slapping fight.

And then the alarm went off.

"YES! AT LAST! SOMETHING TO DO!" Gauntlet said as she jumped up. "…I don't see you jumping. Why is there no jumping? Has there been an accident involving glue and the couch again?"

"Nah. Just no need." Terra said. A moment later Robin rushed into the room.

"Titans, trouble!"

"No problem. The Zap Pack will handle it." Terra said, as she put her feet on the table. Gauntlet would have yelled at her, except Robin did it for him, so to speak: he walked/stomped over as he pulled out his staff and gave her a firm tap on the bottom of her feet.

"Tara, no excuses! Because while I may not share Rob's opinions, that doesn't mean we can start hoisting all our work onto them! For one, it's just not a good message to send. Come on!"

"Argh, fine." Terra said as she got up and followed the group into the main command room where the computer was already rapidly going through all the cameras Robin had planted/tapped into in Jump City to pinpoint the disturbance. "But I'm telling you, we may as well stay home, because the video's going to show a trashed villain and we're just waste time flying out there and getting all sweaty and the media will film us and probably…oh is that it?" Terra said.

"Got it. Someone attacked an armored car. Units on the way, but we better provide backup."

"Who is it?"

"Out of camera shot at the moment…"

"Really, just watch! They're going to show up any second now…any second! Now…now!…Maybe now?"

"Great work there Kreskin." Gauntlet commented, as the robber came into sight.

"Him!" Starfire said.

"Well well, he shows his ugly face again…wait." Robin said. "What time is it?"

"Uh…" Beast Boy said, as everyone looked around.

"Don't any of you wear a watch?" Robin asked.

"Do YOU?" Beast Boy replied.

"…No." Robin said, as he pulled out his communicator and checked. "2:34…argh, of COURSE!" Robin said, as he turned and started running.

"What, am I being dismissed for being lazy?" Terra asked.

"Yes, because you didn't think it through! When did all the other Zap Pack appearances happen? Late afternoon! Early evening! Weekends! They're not going to show up! THEY'RE STILL IN SCHOOL!" Robin yelled. "We have to do it! Move it or lose it guys, we have time to make up!"

"Hah, see! This means…"

"IT MEANS SAVE YOUR OXYGEN FOR MOVING GAUNTLET!"

Gauntlet found himself biting his tongue again.

* * *

Though the police beat them to the armored truck robbery, they as usual proved to be little help: while their target had no armor, he made up for it with a very nasty gun.

"OH HELL YEAH!" Johnny Rancid yelled, the punk in his usual black attire and hairstyle as he fired what appeared to be a modified sub-machine gun. This was bad enough…without factoring in that each bullet seemed to act like a mini-bomb, exploding whatever it struck. These bomb-bullets had quickly turned the four police cars into flaming wrecks and sent the police scurrying back. "Johnny Rancid is back in town, back in business, and once I cash these in, I'm going to get some serious back! Uh…yeah, exactly!" Rancid said, as he turned back to the armored van, smashed onto its side and its guards unconscious in the cab, as he reached it and seized another gold bar, which he carefully (gold was heavy) moved into a large pack that was tied onto the back of his red and black motorcycle, which he was still sitting on when he had shot at the police and sent them running. "20 karat gold! What a haul!"

"Yeah, a haul."

Rancid looked up to see the Teen Titans standing on top of the armored van.

"Fitting word. As we're going to haul you right back to the jail cell that you just can't seem to stay in." Robin said.

"Oh look, Bird Boy and his play dates!" Rancid said, and opened fire at the group, who scattered even as Rancid followed them, spraying explosive shots until his gun clicked dry, at which point he cursed and reached for another clip.

A Birdarang whirled through the air.

And Rancid ducked as it flew over his head, as he slammed the clip in and shot it out of the sky as it flew back behind him. Considering it was a very fast and relatively small moving target, that was rather disturbing.

"Give it up, kiddies! Maybe you can move fast, but I have a lot of friends who can all move a lot faster then you!" Rancid taunted, and opened fire again. When Starfire flew into the sky and tried to rain down Starbolts, Rancid turned the gun on her and forced her to retreat.

As Terra slammed her hands down and the ground suddenly erupted out from under Johnny Rancid, throwing him off his bike with a yell.

"Oh yeah, the dirty blonde." Rancid sneered as he got up. "When this is all over, you wanna go party? You look like a naughty girl."

Terra responded with a surge of rocks.

Which Johnny fired into, vaporizing them into dust via the explosions.

"Didn't you learn anything from our past encounters?" Rancid taunted again.

As Beast Boy leapt in and turned into a crocodile, snapping at Rancid's arm. Rancid yelled and leapt away, and Beast Boy had to retreat from his explosive sub-machine gun…just as a Birdarang slammed into Rancid's shoulder and chest. Rancid yelled and half-fell down.

"Forget it Johnny. The past is just that, and your future's not looking very bright." Robin said.

"Oh yeah? I that important to you, little bird? Then maybe I need to give you a change of priorities!" Rancid yelled, as he stood up…

And turned as he fired into the upper windows of an office building, as Robin screamed and threw more Birdarangs, but Rancid dodged them as he emptied the clip, as more explosions erupted from the floors Rancid had shot up.

"Oh dear! Lots of potential casualties on the cubicle farm! Better go look! I'll just be going now!" Rancid said, as he leapt back onto his bike.

"Argh! Starfire, Terra, go up there, help any injured! COME BACK HERE RANCID!" Robin yelled as he ran towards the dangerous punk.

"Now why would I want to do that?" Rancid replied, and stomped on the gas, as he whirled around the armored truck and drove away…

For six feet.

Then his bike slammed into Gauntlet's yellow energy.

"Sorry buddy. Once you acquire this many parking violations, us meter maids get rather ticked." Gauntlet said.

"Oh yeah? Well since you like my ride, maybe you should say hello to my special bullet!" Rancid said as he yanked another gun from his motorcycle and fired at point-blank range.

It slammed into Gauntlet's artifact, where it stopped dead.

"Oh, special eh?" Gauntlet said. "When you were making this bullet, did you confuse special as in exceptional, with special as in, say, school?" Gauntlet asked, smirking.

"Special. You see, once that bullet hits the target…" Rancid said as he yanked another, much larger machine handgun from his bike. "THEY ALL DO!"

And Rancid opened fire, as Gauntlet was forced to rear back, letting the motorcycle go as he put up his yellow energy to block the bullets, only to find the ones that just deflected off his shield swarmed around him like angry bees, as he tried to look in all directions and prevent his body from sprouting any extra holes, giving Johnny a clear path.

"Hah! Thank you Luc Bresson and Robert Mark Kamen!" Rancid said, as he drove off, laughing.

Surprisingly, this all took a shorter amount of time then it took for Robin to close the distance, as he yelled angrily as Rancid drove off, as Gauntlet finished swatting the rest of the bullets out of the air.

"You ok?" Robin asked.

"Yeah!"

"Anyone up there hurt?" Robin yelled up to the girls.

"We're good!" Terra yelled back.

"Check again! You too Rob. I'll handle Rancid." Robin said, as he pressed a button on his belt and started running, whipping out his grapple as he fired it off and yanked himself through the air, swinging around a building.

It roared around another corner, on autopilot and on tracking device as it swung out beneath him, and Robin dropped onto his Redbird and hit the throttle, tearing across the street as he pursued Rancid with fierce determination.

Rancid saw him coming, and for a moment wondered if he should have stuck with jewels or actual cash: gold was heavy and, as his review mirror told him, slowed his bike down enough for Robin to catch up and pull even with him.

Then he just realized he could have more fun this way.

"Sorry officer, I left my license at home!" Rancid yelled, and yanked his bike towards Robin. Robin slammed on the brakes as fell back as Rancid dashed past him and then roared back the way he came, as Robin drew parallel with him again.

As Rancid pulled out his sickle and chain weapon and hurled it, the blade hooking onto Robin's handlebars as Robin's eyes jerked to the side, his bike in a sense tied to Johnny's as Rancid reached down and yanked another sub-machine gun from his bike.

"And also, I shot the sheriff but I did not shoot the deput-ARGH!" Rancid yelled as Robin whipped out his staff and smacked the machine gun from his hand, and then swung it under and knocked the sickle and chain off his bike. Growling, Rancid grabbed it in mid-air, even as Robin swung his bike out and then yanked it back in towards Rancid.

Sickle and staff met, as Rancid and Robin's bikes slammed together and began spinning around even as they drove on, the fact they kept going in such a crazy maneuver a testament to both driver's vehicles and driving abilities, as Rancid and Robin pushed against each other, trying to disarm and unbalance the other…

As Robin realized that in these close quarters in such a clinch, Rancid had the advantage in strength. A fact Rancid knew all too well.

"You know Bird Boy, hit the road at this speed, you could grind off five, ten pounds of flesh!" Rancid laughed. "By the way, I think you could stand to LOSE SOME WEIGHT!"

Rancid pushed hard, but Robin held on, even as their bikes continued to spin around each other. Good thing this road was strangely traffic free.

"Still hanging on? Not for long birdie! Time for you to realize, as a driver, and a badass, I will always have the advantage!"

"Maybe you're right!" Robin yelled back. "But unlike you, I don't always look to overcome an opponent's advantage, I use my own!"

"What…!" Rancid yelled back…

As the lines shot out of the side of Robin's bike, piercing into Rancid's and linking the two with thin but extremely strong tensile lines.

"This is your stop!" Robin yelled, and then pushed and leapt off his bike, spinning and landing perfectly as he hit another button on his waist.

And rockets on his motorcycle fired, giving the bike a sudden extremely speed boost…a boost that immediately screwed up due to the fact Robin's bike was tangled with Johnny's.

Unfortunately for Johnny, that screwed up his bike in turn, too quickly for him to cut himself free.

"ARRRGGHHHHH!"

The bikes crashed into a giant pile of garbage, and Johnny was buried in trash.

Robin sprinted towards it, staff at the ready, stopping as he saw the trash move, as Johnny pushed his way free of the rubbish and stood up.

"You know, this is a step up after being eaten by that moth, but that doesn't make you ANY LESS DEAD!" Rancid yelled, as he yanked twin guns from his pants and opened fire.

Robin's staff blurred, as he deflected every shot away from him, as Rancid fired while screaming…a scream that faded even as his guns ran dry.

Robin lowered his staff, as Rancid looked at disgust in his guns.

And then he grinned. Robin's eyebrows arched.

"Got another special for you." Rancid said.

And Robin looked at his staff to see the tiny object attached, an object that was not a bullet but instead a projectile that had sealed itself to his staff when it hit it and…

Exploded, blowing Robin across the street as he came crashing down on a car windshield. Rancid laughed again, even as he yanked his bike out from under the trash, severing the lines with a swing of his sickle, as Robin sat up, his side on fire as he winced.

"Nice try bird boy, but can't play no more!" Rancid said, as he got on his bike. "Next time though, you're roadkill! HAHAHAHA…!" Rancid laughed, as Robin snarled and pushed off the car as he sprinted after Johnny, and he thought he caught the other Titans coming in his peripheral vision but he wasn't sure and he was too slow as Rancid drove off, laughing still…

"Man, this is fun even…!" Rancid began.

And then the three figures dropped down in front of him, as one swooped in as he drove.

"WHAT THE…N-!"

Blaze's punch hurled Johnny right of his motorcycle as he flew back into the piles of trash, even as the motorcycle fell onto its side and crashed, barely missing Blast.

"…Of course." Robin said: it was going to be one of those days. Well, a caught criminal was…oh dear.

OH SHIT.

"Hey! Blaze! Watch it! You nearly hit me with his bike!" Blast yelled.

"No I didn't! I hit him, not his bike!"

"Well his bike nearly hit me! In the face!"

"Oh, and I was worried for a moment." Bolt said. Blast shoved him, and Bolt shoved back.

"Hey! Stop fighting!" Blaze said. "We should go say hello to…"

And then Blaze became aware that Robin was yelling, not at them but at his communicator.

"…now! We need an ambulance! HURRY!"

* * *

"Is he going to be all right?" Blaze asked in the tentative tone of the child who realize they've done something bad but have no idea how bad.

"…He suffered a badly broken jaw. He'll be ok. In pain for a while, but ok. But it could have been worse. A lot worse." Robin said, being gentle but firm. Any one of these kids could squish him into the pavement: he had to use their hero worship carefully. Discipline them while making them know that they had to be careful in the future.

"I didn't mean to, but he was just going so fast, and I…he flew into my hand, I didn't mean to hit him so hard…" Blaze said.

"Wait, doesn't that make it his fault too?" Bolt asked.

"…Yes T-Bolt, in a sense. But Blaze should have been more careful. Has to be more careful in the future. When you're that strong, you have to learn caution. Restraint. But don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just don't want there to be a next time."

Nearby, Rancid was being loaded into an ambulance, and the fact that his face probably hurt like hell wasn't stopping him from yelling and cursing, but due to the fact his jaw was already set all he could really do was mumble through clenched teeth.

"MMMMMPHHHH MPP MPPPPPPPPAAAAAAAI! MMMMIIIIIMMMM MMMMMAIIIIIIIIIMD!" Rancid grunted.

"What's he saying?" Terra asked: Beast Boy turned into a rabbit and listened.

"…He either said he wants to ride through a glade or Starfire's a babe. Take it as you will." Beast Boy said, as Starfire looked suitably disgusted.

"Well, at least Robin's yelling at the right people this time." Gauntlet said.

"Gauntlet!"

"Oh come on, it's so nice!" Gauntlet said, as he crept out like the Grinch and put his hand to his ear…

And did not hear yelling. Instead he heard…

"Hey!" Gauntlet snapped, as he stomped over. "Where's the telling them they did bad! Inviting them for lessons is not telling them they did something bad!"

"I did something bad…?" Blaze asked.

"No. Wait. Rob, NOT NOW."

"No no no! This is too coincidental, that not only do they show up just when we're not doing so well, but then they break his damn jaw! Not only are they taking our jobs, they're poisoning the work place!"

"Rob they just got out of school, and it was an accident…!"

"No it wasn't! Robin, stop worrying about the home environment and start worrying about what brought you to the dance! There are just too many damn coincidences and odd happenings for any of this to be anything else then an evil plot!"

"Rob you don't know where one event ends and the other begins, I told you…!"

"Are you guys ok? Did we do something to upset you?" Blast asked.

"OH NO! DON'T YOU START!" Gauntlet retorted, as Blast recoiled. "I know you! Everyone else may not see it but I do! I know what you're up to! I know everything! And I'll find a way to prove it! Your days are numbered! You can trick everyone else, but you can't trick me you…"

Gauntlet didn't get any further, as his angry ranting suddenly caused Blaze to burst into tears.

"Oh THAT IS IT." Robin said, as he grabbed Gauntlet by the ear and started yanking him away. "Starfire! Terra! Beast Boy!"

"No wait wait! Not now! I'm two sentences away from getting them to confess!" Gauntlet said as the other Titans went over to try and comfort the crying girl.

"You're two seconds away from picking your teeth off the street Rob! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Robin yelled. "This was bad enough before, but you're accusing LITTLE KIDS…"

"THEY'RE…!"

"SHUT. UP." Robin said in a low and very dangerous tone. "You have still presented me with no proof. My investigations have not been exhaustive, but nothing has turned up yet. They have done nothing but help us, and look up to us, in a world where a child is losing faith in everything by the hour, and then you go and act like this? Rob, I never believed Noel when he said you were irresponsible when it would count. After some time I doubt even he believed it. But Rob, this is too much. They don't need a time out, you do. Give me your communicator."

"…What?" Gauntlet said, blanching. "You're kicking me off the team?"

"No. I'm taking you off it, for a few days. You need to get away from everything. I think your time in Ubertron has scrambled your brain and you need a bit more of a cooldown period in a place where not everyone you meet is a mad genius with another plot to kill you. Go to a nice hotel, pamper yourself, and come back WHEN YOU'RE READY TO ACT YOUR AGE." Robin said.

Mutely, Gauntlet offered his communicator. Robin took it.

"You're better then this Gauntlet. At least, I really hope so." Robin said.

"…But Robin…something's not right…"

"In your head Gauntlet. Only there. I'm sorry." Robin said, and turned around and left.

* * *

He never knew he was being watched.

"Now do you see the importance of patience? Of how jumping the gun is never a good thing? Why you should never assume? I hope so. I don't want to fail when we're so close." The figure said, as he lifted and sipped at his cup of tea. "But you know…I kind of wish it wasn't so easy to lead this dumb kid around by the nose. Maybe if it was a challenge, it would actually be fun."

Another sip.

"But no matter. Three more days at most. And then the world is ours."

_To be continued_


	31. Youth of the Nation: Reckless Youth

Chapter 33: Reckless Youth

"Never forget you're human."

The sun was up high enough to have painted the ocean water around the tower blue, and the waves lapped gently at the rocks below, driven by faint winds that occasionally tousled Robin's hair or cape. He was standing so the sun was in his face, but his mask mostly took care of that: better he had some trouble seeing then the 'students'.

Then again, maybe he shouldn't call them students, because no kid, no matter how good, liked the concept of school on a Saturday, and that was just what this was: school, perhaps the most important one the kids in front of Robin would ever attend. After all, anyone could learn math or history, but learning how to control, accept, and understand power was something a lot of adults couldn't grasp, let alone the concept of ten year old kids. But after the incident with Rancid, Robin had seen the necessity for a swift lesson or two, as soon as possible. And that meant waking the Zap Pack up and having them fly out there to the tower at 8 AM on a Saturday when kids would rather be watching cartoons or sleeping, something that could take the edge off even the greatest hero worship.

Well, scratch that: Blaze, who was really the cause of this due to her accidental use of too much force, still looked like a kid on Christmas morning. Bolt and Blast, not so much: Bolt still had the bleary eye look of a kid who had been woken up before he wanted to and Blast's eyes showed the unique sharpness of a crabby kid holding his tongue. Still, they were behaving themselves. Maybe Robin should get them a mildly caffeinated drink to wake them up…or, considering the concept of hyper kids with Superman-level powers, maybe it would be safer to let them be a bit dozy.

"If you learn nothing else from us, you must learn that. That fact is at the heart of what a hero is. All good deeds come from it." Robin said. "It is easy to forget at times. Easy to look at someone and say, they can't pick up a car, they can't soar through the air, they can't fire energy blasts from their hands, why should I listen to them? Or anything they wrote? Or anything they claim is right? Should I, who can do these things, not decide what is right instead? That is the thought that can come to you. And it is a dangerous thought."

The Zap Pack looked thoughtful: so did Starfire and Terra, Robin noticed. He kept talking.

"You see, people look to us, and see that we can do things that they cannot do. They do this with many people. Sports stars, actors, soldiers…but in their hearts, people know that these people they look up too are still human. But us, the metahumans and the costumed crimefighters…they look to us like we are something more. And when you can do more then the average man, the most dangerous thought is to think you are no longer the average man. Some people call us myths reborn, or divine beings…or even gods themselves, walking the Earth. But we are not. We are, despite our gifts, still human. We must remember that, above all else. Once we start to forget our humanity…it's too easy to start acting INHUMANELY."

Bolt looked more grim then the others: he seemed to have a slightly higher IQ in regards to most things. Blast and Blaze were still looking confused, scared, and disturbed to various degrees.

"…Our enemies…the 'supervillains', they have a defining trait. They have all, on some level, forgotten their humanity, their tether to the common man. They would rather step on people for their own gain then catch them when they fall. And if you speak to them, they will claim that their reasons are as just as ours, that we are the same and one side won't admit it…worst of all, that we are lying and they speak the truth. But the truth is, they would use their powers to help themselves at the cost of everything else…and that is not right. No matter what reason they give for it. Belief is something that spans both sides…but righteousness is not." Robin said. "…There was a man who lived once, his name was John Stuart Mill…he spoke these words that I hope you will understand, that encircles what I am trying to tell you. 'If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, then he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.' Do you understand?"

"…Uh…" Blast said. Blaze looked like she was having trouble getting the concept down.

"…But just because someone's different doesn't make them bad, right? I mean, don't people have to want to be bad?" Bolt asked.

"…No no, Bolt. Of course not. Difference is just that: difference. It's exactly as you said: It's choice that causes evil. If people are different, that simply makes them people, because people ARE different, but if people use their differences against others…that's evil. At the very least, it's not good."

"So if people put themselves before others all the time, that's evil?" Blaze asked.

"Well Blaze…let me put it this way. We fight to protect Jump City. That is what we claim to do and we really do. But by doing that, we in a way put ourselves before others: should we decide how they should be defended? What if they want to defend themselves? But in the end, we only wish to put ourselves before them briefly so they can decide what to do with the rest of their lives themselves. But villains, they may claim to do the same, but we have to discover what they really want, and often it is to make everyone do want they want or think like they do. They truly put themselves before others, only for themselves. And in that act, they do evil."

"So heroes only do it for a short amount of time to stop a villain, but a villain would keep on doing it?" Blast asked.

"Yes, they would."

"…And villains are bad because they want to change everyone so they can have a better life?" Blaze added.

"Yes, and more precisely, so only THEY can."

"Ok…" Said Blast. "But why do they choose that? And why didn't you?"

"Well Blast, there are many reasons, some you will not understand until you are older…"

"Hey!" Bolt protested, while Blast frowned and gave a look, and Blaze looked a bit hurt. "The first Robin started at our age, and he didn't even have superpowers!"

"Um, how do you know for sure there has been more then one Robin?" Robin sweatdropped.

"Because otherwise you're a really old robot." Bolt said. The other two snickered.

"Oh yes, ha ha. Well, I am not a robot, and while this first Robin, if there WAS A FIRST ROBIN, may have started at your age, he did not get, or understand any information I am not giving you because of your age. Trust me on that, ok?"

Bolt rolled his eyes.

"But about the reasons surrounding choice…there is perhaps one you should know even at this age. Power. Power, perhaps more then anything else, influences choice. And sometimes, it can make you decide to make the wrong choices."

"Why?" Blaze asked.

"Well…first you must understand. Power simply is. It has no, well, power of its own, only in how it is used. When you walk, your legs use a certain kind of power. When you talk, you use a different kind. When you think, once again, a different kind. Yet since this is all happening in your body, it is all the same kind of power. You just use it in different ways, the ways you choose, at the moment. Understand?"

The Zap Pack seemed to be following.

"That is simple power. But power is not always simple, especially when you command it at levels beyond the average human. For example, say someone is smart, smarter then the people around him. They may choose to use this knowledge to work hard, to develop their brains, and gain greater intelligence for it. Or they can decide that because they have this power, this greater intelligence, they should have an easier route, and instead of using it to better themselves, they use it to exploit others. Both uses of power, both choices, but one is wrong. The reasons why this wrong choice is made can be many, but it does not change the fact it is the wrong choice."

"So they use people?" Blast asked.

"Why?" Blaze asked.

"Well, again, there are many reasons, but when it comes to power, there is often one reason above all: because they believe the power to do something gives them the right to do it. But there is a line between using your natural gifts and exploiting the lack of gifts in others. If you are naturally fast, you should win the race, but if you are unnaturally fast, like the Flash, then you should not be racing at all. It is in your power to race, and win, but you must choose not to do so. When you choose to do something just because you can, because you have the power, for your own gain, then that is a bad choice. Just because you can do it does not mean it is RIGHT to do it."

"Like cheating." Blast said.

"Yes, exactly." Robin said. "Now, look at you. You can do so much more then a human being. But if you choose to do something simply because you can, in a way, you do not control your power. It is easy to decide that you are not bound by anything humans say, and because you say what you do is right, then it must be right, because you CAN do it. But that is the wrong choice for power. In acting that way, you do not control your power. Your power controls you. And in the end, your choices lead to you having no choices at all."

"Prison." Bolt said.

"Or worse. The true choice for power is to not use it because you can, because it can help you, but because it can do more then that. That is what connects you to the humanity some may say you left behind: because you still follow the best in them. You control your power, and in doing so, you remain human. That is what a hero is. Holding their humanity and their power, in balance, like the scales of justice we serve."

Silence.

"Dude, wouldn't it have been easier to just say 'With great power comes great responsibility?'" Beast Boy said.

Robin facevaulted. That drew more then a few laughs from the Zap Pack, as Robin picked himself up and dusted himself off.

"Yes Beast Boy, it would. But easier is not always better." Robin said. "In any case, you have come into power at a young age, and all at once. You want to do good with it, which is great, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to be trained. We can't have any more accidents like Rancid. You have been lucky so far, but when you are as strong as you children are, you have to realize how fragile people can be." Robin said. "Fortunately, we have the perfect object for you to learn on." Robin said, as he pulled out his communicator and pushed a button. A section of the roof slid open, and the Zap Pack craned their necks to see.

And from the small elevator that rose up…came Cyborg's shining mechanical form.

Which was wearing a feather boa and sombrero.

Robin arched an eyebrow, even as he sweatdropped again.

"Guys…didn't you take all that junk OFF?" Robin half-yelled. He could hear the Zap Pack cracking up behind him, and he sighed and turned back around. "All right, now we need to be serious again."

"BOO-YAH!" The fake robot Cyborg suddenly bellowed, causing Robin to nearly jump out of his skin. The Zap Pack laughed even harder: Blast was rolling around on the ground. Robin scrunched his face up in a look of slight disquiet and turned back to his fellow Titans.

"That's it, we've lost them forever." Robin commented.

"Friend Beast Boy, is the robot still infested with that insect?" Starfire asked, looking at the fake Cyborg and his ludicrous apparel.

"If you mean that we haven't worked the bugs out yet Star, no, not yet." Beast Boy said.

"Boo-yah! Boo-yah!" Fakeborg fired off. Robin ran a hand over his face and turned back to the laughing Zap Pack, as he drew his staff and tapped it on the ground.

The Zap Pack stopped and sat up straight, though they were still clearly biting back giggles.

"Now, the boring part. You're going to practice only using the amount of strength needed to disable someone. If we have to, we'll spend a month doing just that."

The Zap Pack seemed to still be enthused by that concept, although Bolt raised a hand.

"Yes Tom?"

"How monotonous is this going to be?"

"…Uh…Bolt how did you learn that word?"

"From Savior's action figure."

"Hey, where is he?" Blaze piped up.

"Uh…he's on a mission." Robin replied.

"Awwwww…" Blaze said.

"When's he coming back?" Blast asked.

"…Uh, we're not certain yet." Robin replied, beginning to get a tad uneasy: kids could often be far smarter then they let on.

"Why?"

"…Because we don't know how long the mission will take."

"Will we get to meet him?" Blast asked.

"…Possibly." Robin said. He was glad Raven wasn't around: this would have been painful to her.

"Raven and Cyborg too?" Blaze asked.

"Probably." Robin said: he was more certain they would return…he hoped.

"Yay/All right/Cool!" Was the general response.

"But for now we have to practice punching this robot. And we may have to do it for a long time, so yes, it may be monotonous."

"Awwwwwwwwwwww…"

"Trust me guys. It's boring now, but it's worth it." Robin said.

"Yeah guys. I speak from personal experience." Terra suddenly piped up, as she waved her hand. "When I joined these guys, I couldn't control my powers at all. I was even causing earthquakes in my sleep. Like this." Terra said, snapping her fingers, and the whole tower began shaking.

"TOO STRONG AN EXAMPLE TERRA! DOWN! TONE IT DOWN!" Robin yelled, as he tried not to fall over, as Beast Boy and Starfire tried to do the same. With a dull crash, Fakeborg fell on his face.

"Boo-yah." Came in a muffled tone from the ground.

Robin finally got Terra to stop shaking the Tower, as much as it seemed to amuse the Zap Pack, as Starfire picked up Fakeborg and began brushing him off.

"Did you have a point for that Terra or were you just trying to give us the experience of being a James Bond martini?" Robin asked.

"Yeah yeah Rob." Terra said, as several large rocks floated up over the roof. "Believe me, a lot of the training was boring. But it was worth it. Now not only can I control my powers, I'm getting to be an expert in them. And that's a good thing. After all, why settle for this…"

One of the rocks broke apart and formed a crude human shape, just a step up from being put together with giant stone legoes.

"…When you can do this?" Terra said, and snapped her fingers. The stone contracted, and then in a sudden explosion of dust, it was instantaneously carved into a perfect statue of Terra.

"That's why they say practice makes perfect." Terra said, and snapped her fingers several time, as each large rock was transformed into a statue of Terra, two on each side of her. She glanced at them.

"Hey, looka me, I'm the Jackson Five!" Terra said, and started dancing, as the four rock statues perfectly mirrored her…though Terra could not dance as well as Michael and his kin. Nor sing. "A-B-C! It's easy as Do-Re-Mi! I tell you its 1…2…3…a-b-c…"

Blaze had gotten up and had started dancing with the statues, but Blast and Bolt looked disgusted.

"Boo!" Blast said, while Bolt made a sour face. Terra trailed off.

"Oh come on guys it's the Jackson Five! Michael Jackson!"

"Who?" Blast asked.

"Didn't he do bad things to kids?" Bolt added.

"Lies!" Blaze protested.

"Well he didn't go to jail, but…"

"…God, suddenly I feel old." Terra said.

"All right kids, if we're done talking about the so called king of pop, now we need to start on how you can properly pop people…in the face…that is…punch them…or just strike them…in general…" Robin said as he fiddled with Fakeborg. "Now I'm going to set this impersonating machine so that it would have the general body strength of a human. That way you can learn how much force is too much…hmmmm, I think it's this switch…" Robin said, as he flipped something.

And Fakeborg suddenly exploded into a storm of movement, throwing Robin onto his rear, as the robot went into a mad dance that looked like he was trying to slice the air with his arms while doing a standing-up version of the Russian Cossack dance.

"FLYING DOWN THE SNOWY MOUNTAIN! EH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SNOWINGLY, SNOWFULLY, SNOWBALLY WE GO!" Fakeborg sang in a horrendously off-tune tenor. "O-HIGH-O! MERRILY WE GO! O-HIGH-O! MERRILY WE GO!"

"It seems the fake Cyborg is more infested with insects then believed." Starfire commented. Robin looked at the Zap Pack, who were again rolling on the ground in laughter, and then glanced over at Beast Boy, who was trying not to grin like a fool and failing miserably.

"I swear Beast Boy, do you stay up nights thinking this stuff up?"

After several minutes of struggle and highly inventive cursing to avoid saying any legitimate curse words in front of the Zap Pack, Robin finally got Fakeborg in the proper setup he wanted. He was amazed that the Zap Pack had kept laughing the whole time in one way or another: didn't those kids need air?

"Ok…done." Robin said. "Ok, ok, calm down, breathe…wipe your eyes…time to start." Robin said.

After a few more snorts and giggles, the Zap Pack finally managed to get themselves under control.

"What are we doing again?" Blast asked.

"Well, we need to start with controlling your strength, so this robot will serve as a body double." Robin said.

"Yes! So give it the best shot!" Starfire added, much to Robin's surprise, as he looked at her.

"No wait Star let me clarify…!"

Too late, as with a (far too cute considering what happened) battle cry, Blaze flew forward and let loose with an uppercut that would have done George Foreman proud (I guarantee it!).

Unfortunately, as you might expect with a ten year old girl, Blaze misunderstood 'your best shot' as 'hit it as hard as you can' instead of 'do your best to hit it with enough precision to just cause unconsciousness' and as a resulted delivered a blow far more powerful then Foreman could have ever delivered in his prime at his greatest intensity.

Roughly 11,000 times more powerful, if you're into mathematics.

The sound of the impact rang in Robin's ears, even as Fakeborg's head shot off his body and flew straight up into the air like a rocket, and as the Titans looked up they could only see it still going up for another second and a half before it vanished from their eyes in the way golf balls usually do.

"…Nice." Beast Boy commented.

"…Oops." Blaze said sheepishly.

"Homina homina." Terra said, shading her eyes as she looked up.

"…Ok…lesson 1 is for the moment on hold until we get the head back. Assuming it doesn't achieve atmospheric release." Robin said, as he looked down at an embarrassed Blaze. "And new rule. Please don't hit anything else as hard as you can. None of you."

"Ok." Blaze said.

"Ayefirmative." Bolt added.

Without the head, Robin decided to have the Zap Pack practice body punches, while trying to keep an eye out for the head (in theory it should come right down in this area…hopefully in the water and not on one of the Titans' heads, which would surely result in many horrendous puns like 'having a tete de tete' and so on).

Bolt didn't do too badly, though he still mildly dented the metal. Blast, unfortunately, nearly punched through the whole robot.

"Oops. Sorry." Blast said, pulling out his fist, though he didn't SOUND very sorry. Maybe Robin should have organized this a bit later: Blast seemed crankier then estimated.

Blaze didn't want to try a punch, still ashamed over her uppercut (ONE UPPERCUT! ONE UPPERCUT! Er, sorry).

"It's all right Blaze. We know you meant no harm." Starfire said. Blaze was still hesitant.

"Oh come on Blaze! Move it! Chicken! Buck buck buck buck buck!" Blast said, even doing the arm waving motions.

"I am not!" Blaze retorted in childish anger.

"Yes you are! You're afraid of everything! You still sleep with a nightlight because you're afraid of the dark!"

"I am not afraid of the dark!"

"Ed knock it off." Bolt said, though Blast kept doing the chicken taunt.

"Edgar! Stop!" Robin said, adding an undercurrent of don't mess with me firmness to his voice. "It's not nice to tease your teammates."

"Yeah yeah, ok. But she is afraid of the dark."

"I am not!" Blaze yelled, in the tone that Robin knew indicated she was, but wouldn't admit it.

"It's all right Blaze. It's ok to be afraid of stuff. Heck, I'm afraid of lots of stuff." Beast Boy said.

"Really?" Blaze said.

"Sure! Being afraid is fine! You just have to overcome the fear. That's what heroes do, human or otherwise." Beast Boy said.

"Beast Boy, may I ask how much of this fear extends to chores, meetings, wake-up calls, lost wagers, and anything involving the cleaning of tofu off of dishes, because you seem quite terrified of these things, considering your constant absence from them." Starfire said.

"Uh…" Beast Boy said. "Blaze, give it a try!"

"Ok…hi-yah!" Blaze said, giving the headless Fakeborg a childish karate chop. Robin would dock her points for technique, but considering she dented the metal some maybe that would he all she needed.

"Ok, as you can see, you're still not quite getting it. So far you've been lucky: you've been fighting guys with superhuman endurances or some kind of protection in their clothing or suits. Human beings aren't that sturdy. Try again. You'll get it eventually."

And so the punching practice went. This time Bolt and Blaze did better, but Blast once again punched through the armor covering.

"Whoa, careful Blast careful. You're not being graded on this. No pressure." Robin said. Blast just made a cross noise and went back to his group.

Robin asked Bolt and Blaze to try it flying. They actually managed only minimal denting.

Blast added a third hole to Fakeborg's chest.

"Wow Blast, you seem to keep picking the weak points." Terra joked: Blast still looked cross.

"I AM holding back! Why is this thing so weak!"

"Hmmmmmmm…" Robin said, as he puzzled over advice. "Ok Edgar, try this. I want you to hit this thing like you would a…mom."

"But I don't want to hit my mom!"

"Then do it very LIGHTLY." Robin said.

Blast looked confused as first, as he walked up and looked at the headless robot, as he clenched his fist, opened it again, and then clenched it.

"Ok, I think I got it." Blast said. "HERE I-!"

And then the robot head plummeted down from the sky and crashed down onto Blast's head as he moved forward, a dull THWACK! ringing through the air as Blast stumbled into the robot, both of them going down in a mighty crash.

It would have been funny…if the head hadn't come out of the sky at terminal velocity, as Robin gasped and ran over to the fallen pair.

"EDGAR! EDGAR! ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" Robin yelled, trying not to scream: he had been trained not to panic but there was a difference between staring down monsters and psychopaths and death traps and watching a ten year old kid who had been entrusted in your care quite possibly get his brains dashed in…

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Blast yelled as he sat on his knees, holding his head. "THAT REALLY HURT! THAT SUCKED!"

Relief flooded Robin, briefly: Blast could still be hurt.

"Hold still…" Robin said, as he knelt down, parting Blast's hair…and goggling at what he saw. There was no swelling, no bruising, nothing. Blast had taken a few dozen pounds of metal and cybernetics going at roughly 190 miles an hour and all it had given him was brief albeit intense pain. Holy moly, these kids were tough.

"Ow! Am I ok?"

"…I think so." Robin said, and had to resist the urge to say a brief prayer that these kids kept up the hero worship long enough to be properly trained.

"Cy's head has DEFINITELY seen better days though." Terra said, as she picked up the badly smashed robot head, which was still intact but wouldn't be winning any awards for its good looks. "Owtch…hmmmm. Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well!" Terra said, holding out the head.

"That is a misquote Friend Terra. Hamlet in his namesake play did not say he knew the deceased Yorick well: he instead addressed his companion at the time, Horatio. The line you spoke is one of several famous misquotes: for example Humphrey Bogart said "Play it Sam.", not "Play it again, Sam." and William Shatner in the original Star Trek series never actually once said "Beam me up Scotty."" Starfire said.

Terra stared at the alien, who grinned, glad to be helpful.

"…I suddenly feel a lot like the stereotype of a blonde, as well as old."

"Owtch." Blast said, still rubbing his head.

"Oh it's not like you had anything important in there anyway." Bolt said.

"Shut up!" Blast said, hitting Bolt on the shoulder: Bolt hit back, and the two were on the verge of another fight until Robin put his fingers between his lips and whistled.

"Ok, enough. Now, we're going to stick the head back on and continue the practice."

"For how long?" Blast asked.

"As long as needed."

"Awwwwww. When are we doing to do something fun?"

"Edgar, when you get a bit older, you will find that days where you spend the hours doing quiet nothing things, are the most fun times of all." Robin said.

"…No I won't! That is boring!"

"Hey watch it kid. Don't jinx us." Beast Boy said.

Famous last words.

* * *

It was just Overload, they reasoned.

Maybe they weren't at the height of their guard, but then again, perhaps one could say they didn't have a legitimate reason to be.

Sure, they were transporting a Class-A threat (though there were actually classes within classes, and despite being A level, all metahumans were ranked A level: Overload's actual danger within that level was ranked at roughly a six, one being the most dangerous), and of the three of Slade's monster flunkies he was perhaps the hardest to contain (Plasmus was fine as long as you used the proper tranquilizers and while Cinderblock was big and bad they had more then a few ways of negating kinetic force, and that didn't even cover the fact that at the moment Cinderblock was a mess after his little run in with Terra), but still, he was just Overload, an arrogant electrical sentience that didn't seem to understand being alive and aware did not make one great (and who in the hell thought making an arrogant electrical intelligence was a smart move anyway? Then again Overload wasn't the first Titan villain with a complete question mark as an origin). His central chip/circuit board was locked firmly in the null electrical field, watched carefully by a guard in the back of the armored truck Overload was being transported in, and with that field on Overload could barely think a coherent thought, let alone escape and cause trouble. And if someone wanted to break him out…well, who would want to do that? Slade was in a coma, and his apprentice hadn't shown his face since the Zap Pack had tossed him over the horizon, and his two 'fellows' were already captured and jailed. Who else was there beside that?

And so while the guards were hardly goofing off, their alertness was hardly razor sharp either, as they transported Overload across Jump City, from one holding facility to the other that was more properly designed to hold metahumans. It was a simple drive, and they expected no problems.

So perhaps one couldn't really blame them for what happened, as they came to a stop at a red light.

And the van pulled up behind them. A van that would have been chillingly familiar to people with the right set of observations. And it was no accident that the van was behind this transport truck.

Though the person inside found the whole thing highly aggravating. It shouldn't have had to go this way. But it had, and so this backup plan had become necessary.

He didn't like backup plans that required a thought process of a minute and the use of money to carry it out, but due to the way things had gone down he could scarcely delay any more. His three days had stretched into five, and unless he did something fast even more delays could be added to the timetable, and time was the one thing he didn't have.

Yes, he wished it hadn't gone this way, but that was the trouble when your plans involved more then one person. Especially when that person had been quite useful, only to fall to personal failings. But he couldn't turn back time (in some ways), and so he had to do this.

He'd bought the information that let him be in the right place, and he had the proper equipment. Now he just had to hope that the wild cards of the equation turned out to be 2's rather then kings. Even if things worked perfectly today, he still needed at least a few more days to dot every I and cross every T, and that was if things went perfectly.

Yes, this had been so much easier before HE'D thrown it all to heck. Sigh.

Well, no sense delaying any more, as he looked down to the mechanical case next to him. While on the outside the van appeared to be nothing more then a beat up vehicle unlike the thousands of vans you could see in a city, the inside had a few secrets, as the figure pressed a button on the dashboard.

And the mechanical box began to lower, a small hydraulic lift lowering it down as the floor opened beneath it. Within seconds the box was resting on the street below the van, as the figure pulled out a small device and pressed a button on it.

And the box opened, and the mass swarmed out, a shifting cloud of sparkling rainbow…really an advanced cloud of nanomachines. Good thing he'd had the proper equipment lying around once he'd figured out his backup plan. Good thing his hands still worked well.

Bad thing was the last needed parts he would have to do himself. And to do that he would need the proper distraction. He'd had to leave the several cities surrounding Jump when the heat grew too hot, and those had just been normal police officers. This city had the Titans…and unfortunately was the only city in the radius that had what he needed, in all aspects, to tie this all together and complete it.

So the Titans needed to have their attention diverted.

This should do.

The light turned green, and the armored truck moved on…even as the nanomachines slipped through the improper defenses (after all, they were designed to hold Overload) and penetrated the inside.

The figure gave a brief noise of approval, checked his rearview mirror, and then executed a U Turn (an illegal U-Turn, but really, that was the least of his crimes) and drove off. He had to move quickly. And not because of the time of the distraction. Because he didn't want to be anywhere near it when it triggered.

Ugh, how he hated this van. It just wasn't…proper.

The guard inside the armored truck didn't see the nanomachines until it was too late, and by then they were already infesting his helmet and buzzing in his ears, even as another swarm broke into the computer defenses and tore them apart from the inside.

The yells and screams from the back caused one driver to stomp on the brakes, but it was far too late, as the null field shut down, Overload's central mind falling to the bottom, still dazed…as the nanomachines broke from the guard and the machinery and swarmed around the mind…

The guards in front jumped out and ran around to the back, their guns armed and ready, as they threw open the back door.

Only to have their companion thrown into them, and even as they fell to the ground, their truck abruptly glowed a light, radiant blue…and then exploded into pieces, the guard's armor barely saving them from being sliced to bits by shrapnel.

"OVERLOAD LIVES!" The electrical sentience bellowed, his electrical power surging furiously around his central board and the skeletal frame that projected from it, even as the nanomachines merged with him, spiking his powers and abilities up and up. It was as if someone had shot a pure dose of steroids and PCP directly into his brain. He could feel every current, jolt, and watt of power that flowed through Jump City, and beyond. He had transcended beyond any conception of his power that he had ever had, even when he had been part of Ternion. How this had happened, Overload didn't know or care. All he knew was power, and that he had it.

"AND OVERLOAD IS STRONGER THEN **_EVER!_**" Overload roared, as he raised his arms of power…as every bit of metal nearby was wrenched from its original positioning and pulled to Overload, the monster's electrical powers having crossed into the electromagnetic spectrum as well.

In the city of Dakota, a black teenager suddenly sneezed.

The metal came to Overload, consuming him, even as bigger and farther pieces began to levitate and be drawn to him…including the entire contents of a construction yard that held a partially built skyscraper and most of the material for finishing its frame. The two guards who were still conscious tried to disable Overload, but their weapons were designed to short out his electrical form, and that had vanished behind a mass of steel, as Overload's body grew bigger and bigger, forcing the guards to flee, even as more and more metal was seized and brought to the monster of electricity.

"And Overload knows just what to do." The sentience growled from deep within his construct. "DESTROY THE TITANS!"

* * *

It wasn't very often that Robin got to see the threat before the alarm went off alerting the Titans to a threat, but then again, when you're on a roof across from a city, it's hard not to notice a sudden upsurge of noise…followed by a giant creature rising up from among the buildings.

"…Ho boy." Robin said, as all the Titans, as well as the Zap Pack, stopped and stared at Overload as he rose up from the streets of Jump City.

"Ahhhh!" Blaze said, a bit freaked out at the sudden appearance of the giant creature.

"Dude, is that Overload?" Beast Boy said, as Robin pulled a pair of high-tech miniature scope from his utility belt and zoomed in on the sight…which was roughly when the alarm went off, causing Robin to start slightly. Man, he was jumpy lately.

"…I think so." Robin said, as he played his view over the metallic colossus: he couldn't spy Overload's command circuit board but the energy drawing in and holding the metal was the same color as Overload…and forming the same basic shape, as Robin zoomed back out, as blue electrical power bloomed even higher and settled over the metal body. Yeah, definitely Overload…supersized. What the hell?

"HOLY…church." Terra said, her eyes darting towards the Zap Pack. "Since when can he do something like that?"

"Since, now, apparently." Robin said, putting the scope back in his belt, as his mind fully absorbed the situation. Damn, with Noel, Raven, and Victor gone, and Robert temporarily removed the Titans themselves were at half strength, ill prepared to fight something like that or…

"WHOO HOO!" Blast said, as he jumped in the air and floated. "At last! Something to do besides punch a boring robot!"

Or keep the Zap Pack reined in, as Robin turned towards them.

"Wait…!"

"Come on guys!" Blast said, as Bolt and (somewhat hesitantly) Blaze joined him in the air. "Let's go beat some monster butt!"

"WAIT BLAST DON'T…!" Robin yelled, but it was too late, as Blast took off so fast he cracked mach speed and set off a sonic boom that rang through Robin's ears, even as Bolt and Blaze followed. "Argh. Starfire, let's go! After them!" Robin yelled, as he ran towards the roof, leaping off…as Starfire flew up behind him and grabbed him under the armpits. "Step on it!"

"But Robin, the children are nearly invincible, should we really be worried…?"

"NEARLY, Star. Just like Superman is nearly invincible. And you've seen what can happen to him." Robin said. Starfire's eyes widened, and then narrowed as she opened up her own throttle, Robin narrowing his own eyes to dampen wind-shear, even as Beast Boy and Terra followed behind them, not quite as fast but as fast as they could go.

* * *

Anyone who's ever seen a Godzilla movie probably had a good idea of what was happening in the streets of Jump City as Overload stomped through them, crushing cars and various other bric-a-brac under his huge metal feet (thankfully, no people…yet). Apparently though, Overload preferred going through the established routes of the streets rather then just smashing through the buildings standing in his way: he probably could have, and it would have taken him less time…but he seemed to prefer going through the streets, while watching people flee before him. His laughter thundered (ok, perhaps his reason for going through the streets wasn't as oblique as believed).

"THAT'S RIGHT! FLEE! FLEE FLESH-SACKS! FLEE FROM OVERLOAD!" Overload roared in dark, sadistic laughter, as he continued stomping through the streets, heading for Titan Tower. "YOU ARE ANTS! INSECTS! AND YOU WILL ALL…"

"Man!" Came a voice, and Overload's head shape looked up to see the three Zap Pack members floating nearby, just above him. "Bad enough you're a big-mouth! You're boring on top of that!" Blast taunted.

"YOU!" Overload bellowed: the memory was fuzzy but he remembered what the girl in the group had done to him as Ternion. "YOU HURT ME! NOW I WILL HURT YOU! RARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!" Overload bellowed, as he fired a dozen arcing bolts of electrical power at the trio. Blast and Blaze flew backwards and down to avoid the attack, as Bolt followed, punching a few of the electrical blasts that came near him and actually deflecting them away (his own electrical abilities, one would assume), as the three young children landed on a somewhat-distant roof.

"He wants to shoot at us? Maybe I should show him how it's done!" Blast said, as his own radiant blue power exploded on his hand.

"Uh, are you sure you should Edgar? He's awfully big…" Blaze said lamely.

"Hey, you know what they say…" Blast said, as he levitated up and zapped at the giant metal creature, swooping down into the streets as he drew close to Overload. "The bigger they are, the bigger they BOOM!"

And Blast hurled a whirling sphere of energy as he flew past Overload.

The whole block shook as the energy impacted and exploded against the electrical sentience, and it bellowed…even as it began to topple over…right towards a group of people who were trying to get away from the monster.

"OH NO!" Bolt yelled, as Blaze gasped in horror.

As the ground suddenly surged up, the entire section of street expertly lifting up and forming into a giant hand that seized Overload, stopping him from falling on the people even as the concrete was expertly manipulated so that the fleeing people weren't tossed through the air by the sudden morphing of the ground under their feet…

Overload was just moments before impact before Robin, Beast Boy, and Starfire landed near Bolt and Blaze, as Terra swooped down on a rock platform near Overload, her hands and eyes glowing as she finished her saving grab…

And screamed as Overload slammed into it, rearing back and grabbing at her head, blood suddenly blooming from her nose: she'd finally gotten her powers under control, but she still wasn't used to gigantic amounts of effort mixed with nigh-instantaneous feedback at high speed, and that was exactly what she got from the backlash of Overload's huge body slamming into her protective rock hand. Her brain on fire, all sense lost, Terra stumbled off her platform and fell, plummeting towards the ground.

"TERRA!" Beast Boy yelled, and was about to transform before Starfire took off, heading for the blonde as she fell.

She caught her with about nine feet to spare. Beast Boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"…Oopsie." Blast said, as he floated down near the group, realizing how his little stunt had nearly squashed a group of people.

"Yes. Oopsie." Robin said tersely. "Blast, you can't just run in all the time. Not every solution revolves around a powerful punch! Hitting doesn't solve everything, there's a time and a place for it! Because it's not always your life on the line, it's other people's too!"

"Sorry Robin." Blast said.

"That's ok! Just…all right guys look, you can move faster and carry more then we can, I want you to get all the innocents clear! Every one of them! In the streets, in the buildings, everywhere! Maybe you think it's boring, but it has to be done! Hurry! Once that's done, back us up! Then you can smash the monster!"

"Ok!" Blaze said, as she flew off.

"On it!' Bolt added. Blast, still looking sheepish, chose to say nothing as he flew off.

"Terra might need a bit to recover…looks like for the moment it's just us Gar." Robin said.

"Uh dude, not to be a defeatist or anything, but what am I supposed to do against a giant walking mass of ELECTRIFIED metal?" Beast Boy said, indicating it was the electrified part that was the problem.

"Every great knight needs its mount." Robin replied. Beast Boy arched an eyebrow.

"…All right, fine, but don't kick me in the side! I hate that!" Beast Boy said, as he turned into a griffon. Robin jumped on his back, as Beast Boy pumped his powerful wings and took off into the air.

"DIE!" Overload yelled, having shoved off the hand of rock that Terra had used to catch him and turned around, trying to attack Starfire as she carried the stunned Terra. A massive fist of jagged, crushing swung down, smashing the rock hand that had grabbed it and barely missing the two Titans, as Starfire countered with a blistering line of green power that raked across Overload's chest. Overload yelled again and thrust out his other arm, launching a spray of metal junk at the pair. Starfire furiously dodged and weaved.

As Robin and Beast Boy flew overhead and Robin dropped two explosive discs on Overload's head. Overload didn't much like that either, as he turned his attention to the Titan males.

"TITANS! YOU DARE!" Overload yelled.

"No last time I checked I was Beast Boy!" Beast Boy yelled back, as he did a tight turn and Robin launched more explosive discs at Overload's head. He didn't know if he was doing anything besides pissing Overload off, but as a wise man once said, it was better to try and blow a metal monster up then stand there and gawk at it. Ok, a wise man didn't say that, I just made it up now, sue me.

"RARRRRRR!" Overload yelled, as he swiped at the two: Beast Boy went into a steep dive as Robin felt the giant, heavy limb whistle over his head. He didn't much care to see what would happen if Overload made impact with that on his body, as Beast Boy cut a hard right and Robin launched more explosive discs, peppering Overload's upper chest with explosions. Damn, he was almost out, and he didn't think his Birdarangs or other metallic weaponry would do much of anything, nor was he keen to launch himself onto Overload's crackling electrical form and play _Shadow of the Colossus_: chances were it would like diving into a supersized bug zapper. For a moment Robin missed Cyborg, and then his mind turned to the fact that Cyborg wasn't here and he had to deal with it…

As Overload brought another massive metal limb down, as Beast Boy dodged away, Overload smashing a hole in the street below him.

"Beast Boy, cut around his flank!" Robin ordered: he thought he'd seen a water tower on his way here, maybe he could lure Overload near it and give him a good soaking. That usually worked to disable him…then again…

And then it happened, as Beast Boy flew towards the gap that separated Overload from the nearest building, trying to get around him…as a bolt of electrical power arched off Overload's body and zapped at the flying pair.

"ACK!" Robin and Beast Boy pretty much said at the same time, as Beast Boy did a simultaneous dive/barrel role as Robin dove down on his back and held on for dear life. The teen felt his hair stand on end as the electricity missed them, just barely, as it struck the stone building nearby and carved out a small chasm before the electrical attack dissipated and died, having nothing to conduct itself on, as Beast Boy and Robin flew past Overload and down the street…

For about two seconds, before Overload's leg, not bound by the needs muscles and bones would have to work under, thrust out in a way a human leg would never be able to while standing with its back to something and tried to stomp on them.

Again, he missed, but this time the shockwave was far too close, as Beast Boy was thrown off balance and then completely lost control, as he and Robin tumbled to the ground. Robin landed well and did a few flips to work out the momentum, while Beast Boy turned into an armadillo, rolled up, and bounced along the ground, coming to a rest near Robin, as Beast Boy turned back.

"Dude, you…AHAHAHAHAHA!" Beast Boy laughed, as Robin, his hair still straight up like the Bride of Frankenstein, glanced wryly at Beast Boy.

"Look who's talking." Robin said, and Beast Boy stopped laughing and looked down to see, indeed, all his fur standing upright as well, making him look like the world's largest Tribble.

"Ah man! And I just had myself groomed!" Beast Boy complained.

"Other things to worry about." Robin replied, and Beast Boy turned as Overload finished turning around: he was at least a hundred feet away but he still towered over the Titans, a low rumbling chuckle coming from the giant.

"Robin!" Said the communicator clipped to Robin's belt. "Terra has recovered! However I am uncertain on the status of the Zap Pack's rescue mission…" Starfire said as Robin unclipped the communicator.

"It's ok! Follow the signal to our position, we need to present a united front…!" Robin said…as Overload aimed an arm at them. "And Star, speed is of the essence!"

And Overload fired, sending a whirling length of metal at the pair, as Robin whirled around, putting his communicator back even as he pulled out his grapple and fired, seizing onto a building and swinging far away even as Beast Boy turned into a kangaroo and took great leaping bounds after him, Robin landing as he turned around to see if Overload was following…

He wasn't.

But whatever he had fired…it was, as it swerved away from hitting the ground and continued whirling towards him and Beast Boy at high speed. Robin's eyes widened…and then widened even more as he realized what was going on.

"OH CRAP! RUN! RUN!" Robin yelled, as he took off at a dead sprint, as Beast Boy looked momentarily confused…and then as he saw what Robin did he let out a little shriek and turned into a cheetah, swiftly outpacing the running teenager, as Robin launched his grapple again, jumped, and did a wide 90 degree angle swing around a building, as he landed on the road around the corner and continued running, Beast Boy by his side…

As the whirring metal mass clipped the edge of the building and continued its pursuit of them.

"Dude! What gives!" Beast Boy yelled as he and Robin sprinted down the street, the metal projectile hot on their (in Beast Boy's case literal) tails.

"That missed electrical attack! It must have magnetized us with the opposite magnetic charge required for Overload to send that little whirlymagig after us! The metal on our bodies is acting like a homing beacon to it!"

"How long does it take for a magnet to lose its power?"

"About four hundred years!"

"DAMN!"

The 'whirlymagig' was, despite the Titans' best efforts, catching up to the pair, as Robin's eyes darted around furiously, looking to see if the fliers were going to come to the rescue…

They weren't.

So Robin improvised.

"Beast Boy! JUMP IN MY ARMS!" Robin yelled, and Beast Boy immediately became a spider monkey and jumped, holding tightly onto Robin as he ran to the side, towards a building wall…and then ran right up it, briefly defying gravity long enough to leap off the wall and fire off his grapple again, swinging towards the metal projectile as he yanked up his legs, the magnetic semi-boomerang just missing (there was a lot of that happening lately, Robin mused) his boots as it flew on, as Robin fell to the ground, Beast Boy jumping down and becoming himself once more…as the 'whirlymagig' slowed down and began to turn around.

"And now…we have to run again." Robin said.

"Screw that. I'm gonna block it!" Beast Boy said, as he turned into a triceratops.

"What? No! It's too damn risky!"

"And I'm tired of playing Forrest Gump!"

"Beast Boy…!"

"Robin, last time I checked, it was the Ice Age that killed the dinosaurs, not the Iron Age!" Beast Boy said, as the 'whirlymagig', having fully reversed direction, hurtled back at the two, as Robin, refusing to leave a comrade, yet unable to change his mind, watched the deadly projectile fly at them again, as Beast Boy gambled his thick hide, muscles, and bone as being up to the task of saving the day…

In the end, it was a question not answered, as Bolt suddenly swooped from the sky, one fist crackling with electricity, and with a ringing punch slammed the metal mass into the ground, where it stayed.

Robin and Beast Boy blinked.

"…Nice." Beast Boy said reflexively.

"You guys ok?" Bolt asked.

"…Dude, what did you do?" Beast Boy asked, as he turned back to normal.

"…Hit it?" Bolt asked, confused.

"…Huh." Robin said. "Your innate electrical powers must have muted or reversed the magnetic charge on it. Whew, that was lucky…and something we should consider teaching you to do consciously Thomas." Robin said.

"Uh…if you say so." Bolt said, still seemingly confused on what he had done.

And then a thunderous noise sounded behind the three, as Robin whirled to see Overload stomping through the streets again.

Heading for the Tower.

"But for now, we have bigger problems!" Robin said, as he took off down the street, Beast Boy and Bolt backing him up.

Her eyes blazing emerald, Starfire swooped in front of Overload and cut loose, Starbolts exploding across Overload's body. Roaring, Overload reached over and seized a small brownstone, and with another bellowing yell pulled it from the ground as he hurled it at Starfire, who yelped in surprise…as Blast flew in and punched the building, shattering it to pieces. And even as that happened, Blaze flew in, fire exploding from her hands, as she focused a small but intense blast of white-hot flame on the metal monster, which actually succeeding in blowing a hole in Overload's body. Bellowing some more (was there something in their contracts that said all giant creatures had to be constantly roaring and otherwise making a racket? Hadn't they ever heard of noise pollution?), Overlord hurled a barrage of metal junk at Blaze, who dodged…and flew right into Overload's follow up electrical blast, the young girl screaming as she was zapped by an unbelievable amount of voltage. Smoking, she plummeted to the ground…as Terra swooped over and caught her on her rock.

"Tawny! YOU! YOU!" Blast yelled, as he charged in.

"WAIT BLAST! CAREFUL!" Robin yelled as he arrived.

Too late, as Blast slammed his fist into Overload's body, making a dent bigger then he was and causing Overload to stumble again…even as the electrical energy surging through the metal giant found a new circuit and gave Blast the experience of sticking his finger in an electrical socket…times a thousand.

"GE-GE-HEH-HEH-HEH!" Blast chattered, his body jerking as he was caught in the voltage…and then Overload swatted him into the ground, smashing another small crater, as Overload raised his foot…

"NO!" Bolt yelled, as he flew forward.

And down, right on top of Bolt and Blast, as the black child threw himself over his companion, smashing them both into the concrete.

"Oh god…" Terra said: had she just seen the end of the Zap Pack? Blaze was still on her rock, but she wasn't moving…and she didn't appear to be breathing. Terra's mind raced frantically: what did she do…a pulse! Check for a pulse!

Terra reached down and grabbed Blaze's wrist, trying to find a sign of life, any sign…

…nothing…no pul-

Wait, there! Terra could feel it, faintly beating beneath her thumb. She was alive!

Which kept Terra from being startled too much as Blaze suddenly sat up, coughing violently.

"Ow……!" She whined, as she blinked soot out of her eyes. "That…meanie…poppyhead!"

"You said it." Terra said, as she looked down at her companions, who were still standing around in horror at how Overload had so cruelly crushed Blast and Bolt underfoot…

"Ha ha ha! NOW YOU SEE THE POWER OF OVERLOAD! ALL SHALL…!" The metal giant began to declare…

And then his leg shifted.

"HUH?"

And then his foot was wrenched off the ground, as Bolt flew up, holding onto the bottom of the appendage, his innate electrical powers protecting him from being shocked.

"WHAT THE-!" Overload yelled, as Bolt flew upward in another mighty push, and Overload lost his balance, tumbling over to the side and crushing another brownstone beneath his bulk. Oh God, Robin REALLY hoped people had been cleared out of those by now.

"Thomas! Edgar! Are you hurt?" Starfire said as she swooped down near the crater that Overload had made… as Blast flew up, a bit battered but apparently not hurt. Indeed, he looked mad as hell.

"He wants to STEP ON ME?" Blast snarled, as blue power again exploded on his hands.

"Blast! You must show restraint…!" Starfire called as Blast flew up into the air.

"Don't worry about me Starfire! Worry about who's going to CLEAN UP THIS MESS!" Blast said, as he threw his hands up, a sphere of power forming above him that quickly grew bigger then he was.

"Grarrrgghhhhhhhhhh!" Overload snarled as he pushed himself up and righted himself, facing towards Blast.

As the child thrust his arms out and the blue sphere zapped forward, the metal in Overload's chest snapping like toothpicks as the orb smashed through them.

"ARGH!" Overload bellowed, as Blast thrust out his hand again…and the orb stopped short, floating in the middle of Overload's metal body…as Robin realized what Blast was doing.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Robin shouted as he threw himself behind a nearby bulge of concrete Overload had forced up via his massive new feet's weight distortions.

"Guh?" Overload said, as he tried to look down at the hole in his chest.

And Blast clenched his fist.

Overload exploded, his whole top half blown to pieces as Blast detonated the orb inside of him, as metal debris flew and rained down everywhere in the surrounding blocks.

"HA!" Blast taunted, and then gave the shattered giant a raspberry.

Behind his barrier, Robin grimaced a bit: well it was better then knocking him down onto a crowded street or firing a piercing ray that would go through Overload and who knows what else behind him, but still, Blast needed a few lessons on…

Wait…

"…HEY!" Blast yelled, as the debris suddenly stopped where it was in mid-air if it hadn't hit the ground yet, as it suddenly glowed with its own blue power.

Electromagnetic energy.

The wreckage that had already landed or stopped did likewise…as all the metal was pulled back towards the broken frame of Overload, and began to reassemble itself.

"Ah CRUD." Robin hissed: he'd been afraid that would happen. Overload's metal body was like a weed: even if you ripped out the plant, it would just grow right back if the roots remained. And Robin suspected its roots were Overload's central board, where its mind was located, which Blast had either not hit or Overload had managed to move out of the way.

And to make things worse, Overload could put himself back together far quicker then a weed could grow back, as within seconds the metal had returned and re-merged, the damaged parts of it shuffled around and patched up. As far as Blast was concerned, he hadn't made a scratch.

"HA HA HA HA HA! IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO TO OVERLOAD?" Overload mocked.

Even from the fair distance he was from the young child, Robin could tell from Blast's body language he was furious, even before more blue energy erupted on his fists.

"NOT EVEN CLOSE!" Blast yelled, as he began charging up again…

Never realizing that Overload wasn't just going to stand still.

"DIE!" Overload yelled, and then several giant bolts of electricity fired at the child hero.

"LOOK OUT!" Starfire yelled, as she slammed into Blast, barely getting him out of the way of the attack, as the electrical blasts surged on, striking whatever metal objects they could find beyond the two flying heroes.

As fireballs began raining down on Overload, and he looked up at Blaze, pouring down her own blasts of destruction on the creature. And even as she did that, Bolt swooped in from the side and slammed several immensely powerful punches into Overload's head, partially crushing in the metal cranium. Overload roared, swiping at Bolt, and as he retreated more magnetically controlled metal debris tore off Overload's body and flew at the black child, who fended them off with more powerful punches.

But both attacks weren't doing anything more then surface damage, as Robin fully got to his feet. He needed to think of a plan.

Once again, he briefly cursed inwardly at the terrible timing of this: he really wished Cyborg and Raven were here. Cyborg could have possibly located Overload's 'brain' with his cybernetic enhancements, and when he had Raven could have used her powers and magics to warp the circuit board out, felling Overload as effectively as Jack of fairytale lore had his giant. But they, as he reminded himself again, weren't. So he had to think of something else.

"Dude, you alright?" Beast Boy said as he flew nearby as a bat and transformed back into Gar Logan.

"Yeah, I'm fine, so to speak." Robin replied, even as Blaze continued her fireball storm…until Overload reached out, and every nearby vehicle on the street suddenly glowed blue, floated up, and flew at the girl. She screamed, and then a sphere of fire formed around her, as the cars, vans, and trucks struck it and exploded, the detonation of the thrown vehicles reserving their momentum and pushing them back away from Blaze…and also forcing Robin and Beast Boy to do a somewhat amusing dance on the street below to avoid getting crushed by a few falling and flaming vehicles. As it turned out, they didn't have to move for the last one, as a small floating hand of rock punched it away.

"Robin! What do we do?" Terra asked as she floated down nearby. That left only Starfire absent: she seemed to have briefly disappeared. Robin couldn't let that oddness bother him, he had to think of a plan.

"He's thinking Terra." Beast Boy helpfully said, as he briefly turned into an owl and back again.

"Well, I don't want to put any pressure on him or anything…but Overload just has a short walk away from our island! And I really don't want him pushing our home over like a destructive child with a tower of Legos!" Terra said.

"…Dude wait that's it! Our tower is on an island, and islands are surrounded by water! He hates water! Let's just spray some water on him!"

"Not presently viable." Robin said, even as the racket continued nearby: all Overload would have to do was take a few steps and Robin would risk being stepped on, and Robin didn't know how long the Zap Pack could distract him: yet another thing to keep in his thoughts, which were overburdened enough already. "In this giant form we'd need a huge amount of water. Fire hydrants won't be enough, there are no water towers in the vicinity, and none of us can make it rain. And that's discounting the fact that he might be able to withdraw his electrical impulses into his metal shell and just let the water wash off him." Robin said, speaking in a rapid, clipped tone that somehow remained fully understandable, even in the noise.

"Uh…I could rip open the ground enough to make him fall in, keep him from advancing…" Terra suggested.

"No. To properly do that you've have to destroy who knows how many square blocks of Jump City, which is terrible even if we're lucky enough for them to be completely abandoned…absolute last resort." Robin added, as he wracked his brain. Come on, he couldn't blank now, he couldn't freeze at a time like this…

…Wait.

…He had something.

"Was that a glint? Please tell me that was a glint." Beast Boy said.

"No, it was a spark." Robin said, as he pulled out his communicator. "St-"

"Robin!" Starfire said as she was suddenly at his side, as Robin's eyes jerked upward. Well that was fast. "I am afraid…"

"Yeah, blasting him isn't doing anything. I know. Listen Star, I have a plan! Here's what you have to do: go back up there! You have to work with the Zap Pack to keep him distracted, try and minimize damage to the surrounding area as much as you can…but I want you to lure him TOWARDS the Tower!"

"WHAT?" Terra goggled.

"Yes, towards the tower! I don't want him to actually REACH the Tower, but I need him to head TOWARDS it, at the very least to get him out of the city! Understand?"

"Perfectly! Be careful Robin!" Starfire said, as she flew back up to join the battle, as Robin saw Blast and Bolt had resumed firing at Overload (well in Bolt's case he was just throwing debris), while Blaze flew in from another direction and concentrated a stream of fire on Overload's head, assumingly to obscure his vision. Robin wondered if that would work in any way: Overload's body may have had a head, but Robin wouldn't be surprised if Overload actually saw in the form he'd made by sensing the electrical impulses that were in the Titans' bodies, or something in that vein. If that was the case Blaze could fire on Overload's head until the cows came home and went to sleep: she wouldn't hamper his vision in the slightest.

"All right, what do we do Robin?" Beast Boy asked, as Robin whipped out his grapple once more.

"You're with me! Come on, we're heading back to the Tower!" Robin said, as he fired off said grapple.

"What? We're RETREATING?" Terra said, incredulous.

"Not in the sense of running away! But at the moment, we just don't have the proper equipment to deal with the…current situation!" Robin said, as he swung off.

"Trust me Terra. Robin would sooner gnaw his own arm off then run from a fight." Beast Boy said. Terra shrugged and took off after Robin on her rock platform.

Beast Boy did a very brief stretch as he prepared to transform…and then it hit him, as he slapped his face.

"Dude! CURRENT situation? Oh I REALLY hope that wasn't intentional, UGH!" Beast Boy groaned at the horrendous electrical pun as he turned into a cheetah again and sprinted after the two.

* * *

"Argh! Argh! Why won't you BLOW UP!" Blast snarled, as his latest spray of attacks proved to once again be ineffective in doing any lasting damage.

"His body is mostly composed of metal. Metal isn't exactly known to be combustible." Bolt informed his companion.

"Oh go eat another dictionary! HAHHHHHHH…!" Blast yelled, as he thrust back an arm and then slammed it forward, as another massive surge of power erupted from his hand. It slashed through Overload's shoulder and blew his left arm clean off…but the arm hadn't even hit the ground before it had been electro-magnetically seized and pulled back, as Overload grafted his arm back onto his body like it wasn't no thing.

"Do your parents know you know that word?" Bolt inquired over Blast's choice of language at his most recent failure. Blast gave him a dirty look.

"Yes, while profanity is somewhat expected in the ataxia of war, it would be casuistic of me to advocate such vituperation in an exemplar as buoyant as you." Starfire said as she flew up to join the boys.

Blast and Bolt stared at her as if she suddenly had three heads.

"…WHAT?" They both said at the same time. Starfire sighed.

"Swearing isn't nice, so don't do it, even if the problem somewhat excuses it." Starfire said with a hint of sheepishness. She had to be careful with her language absorbing skills: they'd taught her many many words but she still hadn't quite learned the proper situations for all of them them.

There was a sudden loud noise, and then Blaze flew backwards, having barely avoided a swinging blow from Overload that had smashed another small building to rubble.

"Star! I'm not doing anything!" Blaze said, a note of clear terror in her voice.

"It's ok! I know! Robin has a plan! Listen, you and I must continue to distract the Overload, but at the same time we MUST let it approach the Tower! Robin wants this, though he did not tell me why!"

"Well what's he going to do?" Blast asked, as Overload recovered from his blow and started stomping towards the flying foursome.

"I cannot say, but Robin has never failed us before, and I doubt this will be his first time. LET US ATTACK! I WILL LEAD!" Starfire yelled, and charged, shouting a battle cry as her eyes shone a brilliant jade and then burst forth with her destructive eye beams, raking another line across Overload's torso. Blaze followed, as she waved her hands and then a twisting tornado of fire came from them, slamming in turn into Overload's chest and pushing him back a step.

But he just laughed.

"You still believe you can harm THE MIGHTY OVERLOAD?" Overload trumpeted, and then suddenly metal was flying everywhere. But not from Overload's body. Instead of coming out, it was being drawn IN, as Overload extended the reach of his fields and suddenly everything he could grab in the surrounding five square blocks was flying through the air, from screws to 18 wheelers, a deadly storm of slicing, crushing, smashing, and cutting debris that enveloped the floating heroes.

"Eeeek!" Blaze yelled, as she threw up another shield of flame, as Starfire found her flying skills being tested perhaps like never before.

"Hang on Starfire!" Blast said, as he flew in near her, and then he suddenly grabbed her by the shoulders, as he began to spin. Hundreds of needle-thin blasts began to fly from his body, knocking away the debris.

Overload snarled inwardly: he may have been so much stronger now but even he couldn't keep this metal storm up forever. But even as he grew angry at that, he saw another option: Blaze hadn't moved yet. Well, electrocuting her hadn't done her in, so he'd use option B.

The metal storm cut out, and a second later Blast stopped spinning.

"Sorry. I forgot you might get dizzy." Blast said, as little whirly-circles spun in Starfire's eyes…

And then she heard the yell.

"TAWNY LOOK OUT!" Bolt yelled.

"Huh?" Blast said, as he turned around.

As Overload made Blaze pay for not moving, as he swung out an arm and smashed it into the fiery shield, sending Blaze flying with a cry, as she smashed through two buildings at a hard angle and then was buried in the street two blocks away from the fight.

"Blaze!" Blast yelled, as Starfire's eyes grew worried. Surely the girl…but she was so young, and she hadn't had a prolonged fight yet…Starfire didn't know and hence the fear grew, as she flew over to help…oh X'hal let it just be help…

"HA HA HA!" Overload laughed. "Like swatting a fly!"

Blast would have charged in and force-fed Overload his gloat, but Bolt beat him to it, as golden lightning suddenly began crackling all over the young black child.

"You…!" Bolt hissed. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!"

And Bolt shot upwards, like a lightning bolt in reverse, vanishing within two seconds, as Blast stopped, wondering just what his companion was going to do.

And then Bolt flew back down, like his namesake, except in this case electricity would be utterly worthless against his foe. But he would make do without it, as he laced his hands together.

Overload looked up just as Bolt brought his axehandle blow right down on his head.

The shockwave shattered every still unbroken window in the surrounding five blocks and compacted Overload's massive body like it was an accordion, the metal in his form tearing into the building on each side of him as the vertical switched to horizontal. The force sent Blast flying away in a tumbling air-roll, as the child yelled his surprise. Everyone in Jump City heard the sound of the blow.

Blast finally got himself under control nearly a mile away, as he blinked to get his sense of balance back and looked at where the mighty giant Overload had become the mighty dwarf Overload.

"…Yowza." Blast said. And he'd always thought Tom was so calm.

Having reduced Overload's height by several dozen feet, Bolt flew back a bit, momentarily exhausted. He'd lost his temper, he could have done more harm then good, but he had to…

A girder flew from Overload's body, and as Bolt's eyes widened it slammed into him, knocking him to the ground.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Overload laughed once again, as with a dreadful series of metallic shrieks Overload shoved his compacted body back up, reforming it at incredible speed. Even Bolt's heaven-sent blow had done little to slow him down.

Bolt shook his head on the street where he lay, as he looked at Overload once again towering over him. He'd really used up a lot in that attack, and Overload…was dreadfully eager to pay it back with interest, as Overload raised one giant metal fist.

"MY TURN!" He bellowed, and swung his fist down.

As a fireball blew his hand apart.

"ARGH!" Overload yelled, as he looked up. She was a bit more battered and scuffed up then before, but Blaze had come out of that crater and back with Starfire with nothing more then some bruises and a new head of steam. The kid's endurance was absolutely astounding.

"WHAT DOES OVERLOAD HAVE TO DO TO MAKE YOU STAY SQUISHED?" Overload roared, and then he swung his huge arms at Blaze, who flew back…even as twin blasts, courtesy of, well, Blast, exploded on Overload's back, making him lose his balance and faceplant himself on the street where Bolt had been lying moments ago, before Starfire had retrieved him.

"Are you all right? Do you wish to retreat?" Starfire asked.

Bolt blinked, and then adjusted his mask.

"Not a chance, miss."

"I did not think so." Starfire said, as she let Bolt go and the two flew to attack again.

* * *

"Robin wait, the bridge!" Terra said, as she reached the end of the bridge that connected the mainland to the island Titans Tower was on. Lacking anything to swing on, Robin had jumped on Beast Boy's back as a horse and rode him across the bridge: Terra's rock flight had let her outpace the two somewhat and reach the end first, several seconds before the other two. "Overload could…!"

"I know." Robin said, as he and Beast Boy reached the end as well and Robin jumped off, as Robin sprinted over to the side, pulling out his communicator and pressing a button. A section of rock opened up and a small control panel slid up: the bridge controls. Robin pressed a few more buttons on the circular device all Titans carried and then slipped it into the control panel, as he proceeded to hit several buttons on said panel. With a loud whir of pistons, the bridge began to lower back into the water.

"There. If he wants to come knocking at our door, he's going to have to get his feet wet." Robin said with grim satisfaction.

"Dude wait, Overload's got that whole Matrix thing going on with machines and stuff, he could…" Beast Boy, having turned back, started to say…and then the control panel Robin had been working on suddenly started sparking violently, and moments later a brief but violent surge of electricity coursed over it, leaving it a blackened, smoking wreck. And Beast Boy suddenly had a good feeling that the panel on the other side of the bridge had done the same.

"Reactivate THAT mess, Overload." Robin said, as he pulled his somehow still functional communicator out of the ruined panel and turned back to the two.

"…Nice." Beast Boy said. Robin suddenly felt a sense of déjà vu.

"However, I have a bad feeling that Overload will be able to remove the electrical power coursing on his legs, which most likely WILL let him walk across to the island, if we let him. Which we damn will not if I have anything to say about it." Robin said.

"…Oh! I know what you're going to do! You want me to cause an earthquake that will make a tidal wave to waterlog him!" Terra said.

"…Yes Terra. I want you to cause an earthquake so severe that it will produce a hundred foot plus tidal wave, which I'm sure will ignore all of Jump City's docks and coast line and just give Overload a bath." Robin said. Terra blinked as she realized that that was the most likely scenario: she could control earth but she couldn't control the length of a tidal wave that would be produced if she messed around with it.

"Hey dude, lighten up!" Beast Boy said.

"I am light. You were wrong Terra, but that's not a crime. Now here's what I DO want you to do." Robin said. "I want you to fly out a bit and grab as much rock as you can, pull it from the sea bed, minor islands, whatever you can find, I want you to make the biggest mass of stone you can possibly make that will let you control it without great difficulty. You're Plan A. Once you do that, keep it ready, I'll contact you on what to do then."

"Aye aye captain!" Terra said, and took off on her rock platform.

"Beast Boy, come with me. I'm going to need your strength." Robin said.

"Where are we going?"

"The garage."

"Why?"

"Plan B. Which is considerably more complicated, so I really hope we don't have to use it." Robin said. He glanced backwards: Overload was still coming. He just hoped that what he was going to do took a shorter amount of time then for Overload to arrive.

* * *

Indeed, despite their efforts, Starfire and the Zap Pack clearly weren't slowing Overload down much. Maybe he had finally adapted to his new giant body and adjusted his legs so he would be harder to knock down.

Overload swung his huge arms once more, terribly fast for such a large creature, but Starfire and Blaze were faster, as they zig-zagged away once, twice, three times, and then each fired a spray of their respective power blasts, blowing more holes in Overload's body. But the metal quickly began reassembling itself…even as Blast flew in low and blew one of Overload's legs off at the 'knee'. Overload stumbled, grabbing and partially crushing another building, but the leg swiftly reattached itself and Overload was back up and moving forward again.

"Geez! What do we have to do, stick a giant switch in him and then turn him off?" Blast complained as he flew up near the girls. A moment later, Bolt joined them as well.

"We don't have much room left!" Bolt said, and as Starfire glanced over her shoulder, she saw that the bay was indeed a stone's throw away.

Or in Overload's case, a chunk of the building he had partially crushed throw's away, as he hurled the piece of debris at the four and forced them to scatter.

"Back up!" Starfire called, as she flew backwards, throwing Starbolts all the while.

"What? Why?" Blast complained.

"We've damaged Jump City enough!" Starfire replied, as the group flew over the water.

His footsteps reverberating through Jump City's streets, Overload followed, approaching the ocean.

* * *

"Robin! I'm just about done out here!" Terra's voice said from Robin's communicator, as Beast Boy finished loading up two very large metal crates that was in one of the storage rooms near the garage, placing them onto the tongs of the forklift Robin had produced from somewhere. Robin pulled one lever, lifting the crates up, even as he pulled another and began backing up the forklift.

"Understood! Get ready!" Robin said, as he tried to turn the forklift around in the hallway…and then his communicator crackled again.

"Robin! Overload has just about left the city! Within moments he will either be stopped by the water, or in it!" Starfire said.

"Stand by and watch for the moment I will explain in a second!" Robin said, as he tried to drive with one arm and fiddle with his communicator with another, as Beast Boy slithered down from the framework of the forklift above Robin as a snake.

"What are you doing?" Beast Boy asked.

"Trying to…pinpoint their location…get a camera from the Tower on them…" Robin said, as he tried to press the correct buttons in order with his thumb. "…wait a sec…something's wrong here."

"What?"

"I can only get one reading here on the scan, there should be four…is that Starfire? I can't tell…!" Robin said, a bit more irritated then he would normally be due to his attempted multitasking.

"Maybe it's damaged."

"Maybe then why…wait is that…argh!" Robin said, as he sent the command to the camera to find the signal and aim at it and sent the image to his communicator.

Several seconds later it popped up and scanned in, showing Starfire and the Zap Pack. Robin blinked in confusion and went back to the scanning mode…

And now four dots were there. All present and accounted for. Robin sighed. Must have been a glitch. Now he was focusing on watching what his communicator was showing, as he zoomed back out.

Overload was reaching the shore.

So he told the group what to do.

* * *

Starfire and the Zap Pack waited, as Overload hit the edge of the water…and realized there was nothing dry for him to walk on.

That stopped him.

For one second.

"Ha ha ha! You think it will be SO EASY?" Overload laughed, and then suddenly the blue power that had been crackling all over his metallic body retreated from his legs, and he stepped into the water. Robin had been right: he could retract his power inward and use the metal as a makeshift skin to keep himself safe.

Well then, Robin would see just how good his 'skin' was.

"Starfire, fall back some more! Terra, when I give the signal…!"

* * *

"RRRRRRRRRRAARRRR!" Overload yelled, as he swung his arm at Bolt again, the attack missing as the child flew in to deliver a his own glancing blow. Overload ignored him as he turned and fired another giant arcing spray of electrical blasts at the other combatants. Only Starfire got close enough in her dodging to attack, as she hit Overload with another explosive barrage of Starbolts. They worked as well as the last 462 Starbolts she had hit him with: that is to say they didn't work at all.

"You cannot stop Overload! Overload will crush you, your home, and everything else!" Overload bellowed, as he continued to walk across the bay, the water up to just about his 'knees' as he walked on.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Blast said, as he fired one blue blast after another. They pierced through Overload and exploded in the water around him, but the plumes of liquid didn't stay up long enough to do any damage the water may have, and the holes didn't do anything either, as Overload slashed out and backhanded Blast, sending him flying across the bay.

"Starfire!" Starfire's communicator squawked.

"YAHHHHHH!" Bolt yelled, as he flew it and began smashing dents in Overload's chest…before part of the chest shot out and hit Bolt, shoving him backwards…as Overload's huge hands smashed together on the young child. They opened again swiftly, and Bolt fell to the water, like a bird with its wings clipped…before Blaze caught him.

"You cannot win!" Overload yelled: damn he loved to hear himself talk. "I am supreme! I am unstoppable! I am OVERLOAD! I AM…!"

"Getting on the nerves." Starfire said, as she flew up and hit Overload with another Starbolt.

"That was NOTHING! YOU ARE NOTHING!" Overload yelled.

And with a look of intense rage in her eye, Starfire's power surged onto her hands again, and then all around her, as she suddenly lit up the sky in a brilliant emerald flash.

Overload waited for the attack to come as the light briefly blinded his basic sense of sight…

But there was no impact. And even as Overload became puzzled over that, he sensed with his other abilities that the electrical signals of his foes weren't coming in…they were going away, as if…

The flash cleared.

Revealing the gigantic stone hand flying at Overload, a fist from Gaea herself.

The blow shattered the giant construct of rock and mud, but as the heroes outside and in the Tower watched, it had its desired effect, as Overload was knocked down from the blow, and with a bellow of rage he fell into the water, making a gigantic splash that almost touched the clouds as the sea rolled over him.

And Robin watched, crossing his fingers…

"…Nice. Did we win?" Beast Boy asked beside him.

Robin winced: he really hoped…

And then the metal hand emerged from the waters.

"DAMN!" Robin cursed, as Overload began to re-emerge from the water: he'd hoped that while maybe Overload could seal off parts of his body, that his whole form would prove vulnerable to water if he was suddenly immersed in it. But there had been no such luck: Overload had apparently gained so much fine control he could seal up his entire assembled body, protecting him from the water that would have normally grounded him and shorted him out. Damn. He wished Beast Boy had been quiet: now he couldn't help but wonder if he'd jinxed him.

"All right then. Now we have to do it the hard way." Robin said, as he switched to his communicator's main function. "Starfire, Terra!"

"Robin it did not work!" Starfire replied, as she and Terra appeared in split screen

"I know. I have a backup plan. Now listen, this is going to be tricky…!"

* * *

"Understood!" Starfire said, and closed off her communicator. Overload had once again regained his feet, and without any other choice the Zap Pack was attacking him again, desperately trying to stop him. "Terra, you and Blast must get to your tasks swiftly!"

"Right…" Terra said, wondering what the hell Robin was thinking, as she called back the shattered remnants of the giant rock hand she'd worked so hard to make, as well as suffering the painful feedback of slamming it into Overload, all for nothing. She'd be extremely pissed off, if she weren't so tired.

But she couldn't run away, especially not after chiding Robin when she thought he was doing so, as she began pelting Overload with the rocks, even as she tried to find Blast.

Blaze flew backwards into Starfire, causing her to make a little scream of alarm.

"It's ok Tawny! Listen, there is a new plan! Are you tired?"

"Well uh…no…" Blaze said.

"Good. Ok Blaze, listen close. I am going to do something with your friend Bolt. When I do, I want you to hit the FRONT of the creature, as much of it as you can manage, with the hottest fire you can manage! And I mean as hot as you can get!"

"…Ok!" Blaze said, giving a hesitant thumbs-up. Starfire grinned, trying to comfort the girl: she may have been truly mighty but she was still young and unused to many things.

Bolt was nearby. Starfire flew to him.

"Hey Blast!" Terra said as she flew in near Blast, who, for lack of any other plan, was once again trying to blow Overload up. Hey, cut him some slack, he's just entered the double digits.

"What!"

"Robin has a plan!"

"He just had a plan and it didn't do anything!"

"Tell me about it! But Robin's smart, trust me! Now what he wants you and I to do, so that the others can do something else, is be as annoying to this freak as possible! We need him to focus solely on us!"

"Annoy? I can do annoy." Blast said, as more blue power erupted on his hands.

"Just try and keep up." Terra said, and the two flew at Overload.

"So you keep trying! And you will keep fail-!" Overload started taunting again.

Blast fired at the water in front of Overload, and the water surged up and splashed him, Overload barely able to retreat beneath his skin before the water struck him, barely saving himself from being shorted out.

"ARGH! YOU WILL-!" Overload bellowed.

And this time he was interrupted by Terra, who had yanked a giant clump of rot-filled mud from the sea bottom and promptly introduced it to Overload's would-be 'face'.

* * *

"Robin, just how is that going to work?" Beast Boy asked, as Robin finally managed to get the forklift into the garage again, or more specifically, the hanger.

"I can explain in a bit! For now, I need you to help me load these onto the T-Ship!" Robin said, as he pulled himself up from the seat of the forklift as it lowered the two tall and somewhat thin crates onto the floor, as Robin produced a fancy kind of key tool from his belt and inserted it on the top of one crate as he stood on the other, as gears whirred and the top of the crate opened up.

"What are these?" Beast Boy said, as he joined Robin on top of the forklift, even as gears whirred inside the crate, pushing whatever lay within in up (dang, those were some fancy crates).

"Missiles." Robin said, as indeed twin missiles emerged from inside the metallic 'mechanicrate'.

"Missiles? Dude, we've hit that guy with like ten different explosives, how will…!"

"Not normal missiles Gar. These are freezing missiles. Think my discs, except MUCH bigger. Go ahead and remove them, I have to arm the warheads manually before they do any damage. " Robin said. Beast Boy stared, and then turned into a gorilla and began removing one.

"You have freezing missiles?" He asked incredulously.

"Well yeah. I have freezing discs after all."

"Yeah but you can build those by hand in what, fifteen minutes? These are somewhat bigger and probably more complicated. Not to mention I'd like to know why you'd ever think of a problem that required freezing missiles!"

"They're a standard part of Batman's armament. They're from him."

"Why would Batman ever need freezing missiles?"

"He had to freeze the Gotham River once…it's a long story…"

* * *

"RARGH!" Overload roared as he wiped the mud off his face. "YOU WILL ALL DIE! OVERLOAD WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

"Oh YACK YACK YACK. Are you actually going to say anything that is in any way REMOTELY interesting?" Terra retorted, and thrust out her hands, her eyes glowing golden, and beneath Overload the ground rumbled and shifted, causing the metal monster to sway a bit. Terra wished she could knock him down, but to do that would require so much earth manipulation as to cause the wave problems Robin had mentioned earlier.

"RARGH! DIE!" Overload yelled, and hurled pieces of metal at Terra.

As Blast flew in and punched them away, as his hands glowed once more, as he thrust them over his head and slammed them together.

And then he slashed them down, and his energy, tightly focused, fired from his hands, as Blast swung his hands down in an 180 degree arc, his power forming a giant cutting laser, as he sliced Overload in half, straight down the middle.

Good thing they were a fair distance into the bay: if he'd done that in the city a few buildings behind Overload probably wouldn't have agreed with it.

"Sorry you had to split." Blast said.

Overload roared again, his body re-merging in seconds. This time he tried ball lighting, hundreds of them, and Terra and Blast swiftly retreated as the electrical spheres gave chase.

As Starfire flew up behind Overload, Bolt with her.

"Are you sure you can handle this Thomas?" Starfire said.

"Don't worry about me Starfire." Bolt replied.

"…Then let us take the plunge." Starfire said, and signaled to Blaze.

And then she flew in, Bolt by her side, as she zipped up behind Overload, even as Bolt grabbed her shoulder.

She slammed into the small of Overload's back, her fingers sinking into the metal. The electrical power coursing through Overload's gigantic form immediately tried to shock her into submission…if not for Bolt being there, providing a shield from the ultra-high voltage.

As Starfire's eyes glowed once more, as she mustered everything she had.

And then she began her modified form of energy emission, as she began heating up the metal beneath her hands, as fast and as much as she could. The area beneath Starfire quickly turned from various gray colors to a mottled red, the iron and steel beginning to soften and grow viscous beneath her fingers, the dull red glow swiftly spreading out around Starfire.

"WHUH?" Overload said, as he suddenly felt the immense heat on his back, as he tried to turn his head, see what was going on…

As Blaze flew in front of him, her eyes hard.

"Ok Star. Here GOES!" Blaze yelled, as fire exploded on and around her, completely enveloping her in a giant orb of flame, and then as the fire went from red to white it exploded outward in a mammoth, expanding wave.

* * *

"Locked and loaded!" Beast Boy said, as he shoved the final missile into the launch chambers.

"Then let's get going." Robin said as he leapt onto the T-Ship's wing and then into the main cockpit, as he swiftly fired up the ship, Beast Boy jumping into one of the side cockpits as they closed, as the Tower began to shift and open up to allow launch, even as Robin armed his freezing missiles.

"So what are we doing?" Beast Boy asked from his cockpit.

"Well Gar, smashing him apart isn't working because he just pulls himself together, and we can't short him out because he's hiding. The game does not favor us at all. So I'm changing the rules."

"Yeah, but can this really work? It's kinda crazy in more then a few ways!"

"Well Beast Boy, what is youth then sometimes being a little reckless." Robin said. "Engines ready. Launch on my mark. Three, two, one…"

* * *

"ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!" Overload bellowed, utterly confused as he was consumed in the sudden, terrible fire, so hot that the water around him in a two hundred foot radius immediately heating into a surging boil.

Starfire and Bolt were only barely protected from Blaze's giant fire wave from where they were, and thankfully said wave screwed up any further efforts Overload might have made to dislodge them, as Starfire began to feel a deep ache of exhaustion within her hands and muscles, so much energy she was pumping in, but she could spare more, she had to…

"RARGHHHHH! THIS IS NOTHING!" Overload yelled, as he tried to advance…and found himself more sluggish then he had been moments before…and even as he realized that he realized that the attacks on his back and front were linked, and what they were doing.

He was MELTING, his whole body starting to lose firmness, so hot was the heat being exerted on him.

But if they thought they could smoke him out, they had another thing coming, as he roared again and tried to advance, as many dollops of liquid metal began running down his body like sweat, his body inside and out being to push and merge with itself, like if multiple bowls of hot wax were poured into the same container…

"THIS IS NOTHING! I AM OVERLOAD! I AM INVINCIBLE!" Overload bellowed.

Terra and Blast watched from a distance, the heat so insane they couldn't get close. Hell, Terra was sweating like crazy as it was, and she was sure Blast was too, though he'd recently just taken a dip in the water at some point and she couldn't really tell what was water and what was sweat…

And Overload was STILL coming, still heading for their Tower…

And Blaze's fire was starting to slack, her energies depleted, even as Starfire's vision began to dull slightly…

And then her communicator squawked, the little device that could somehow enduring it all to work.

"STAR GOOD ENOUGH RUN!"

Starfire broke off with Bolt immediately, the two flying away from Overload now melting all over body, and as she flew Starfire fired one last Starbolt from what remained of her meager reserves into the sky, which served as a flare for Blaze, who switched off her fading flame and flew to the side, finally exposing the melting mess that Overload was now, like Frosty the Snowman had wandered into a greenhouse.

As the T-Ship streaked through the air, heading straight for the liquefying colossus.

As Robin locked on and flipped open the cover to the firing button.

"Next time Overload, try trashing Toyko."

And the missiles flew from the T-Ship, streaking towards the giant, whose body hadn't even begun to cool down…

Which the freezing missiles did for it, about a hundred times too fast, as they struck Overload and unleashed their gaseous contents, ice shooting across Overload's whole body, Overload giving one last roar as the ice swiftly froze his whole form solid, even extending down his legs into the water.

And Overload found that all his melted bits and pieces were now stuck together, incapable of movement, all his gears jammed, so to speak.

As the T-Ship stopped and hovered, the Titans and Zap Pack flying to it, as the cockpits opened and Beast Boy and Robin pushed themselves up.

"…Heh. Nice, nice, baby." Beast Boy said, commenting on Robin's plan coming together.

"It won't hold him for long…but long enough. Zap Pack?" Robin said. The three kids nodded at him. "I told you that there was a time for hitting. Well, now's that time."

The three kids grinned.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Overload bellowed.

And the Zap Pack smashed through Overload's body, and the entire metal construct shattered, made ultra fragile by being superheated and then supercooled within seconds, thousands of shards of iced up metal falling into the sea, along with a twisting and thrashing circuit board, the nanomachines falling off it in tiny sparking flames.

It hit the water, and with one last thrash and zap, all it knew was darkness.

"YEAH!" The Zap Pack yelled in their triumph, as they posed and then slammed their fists together.

"Zap Pack, GO!" They yelled, striking a group pose as the fiery background with the giant Z popped up behind them.

The Titans just watched.

"…Ok, is anyone gonna tell me how they do that?" Terra asked.

* * *

Half an hour later, the shoreline of Jump City was crowded with police cars, fire trucks, and a new special containment wagon for Overload's control board. The Titans had managed to find and fish said board, now inert and inactive, out of the water: they had just delivered it to the authorities, who were tucking Overload away again. Scans of the entity had revealed it was back to its normal level of power, leaving just how it had gotten such a gigantic boost a mystery for now before Robin got his hands on all the debriefing data. He was at the moment finishing up his statement to the police and really hoping he and his team could do whatever else they might need to still do and then go home without running into the media. He was tired and didn't feel like dealing with them.

Robin finished up and headed over to the other Titans, who were all tired as well, except Beast Boy. But of course, the Zap Pack had energy to burn, even after all that, and now that the battle was over they had forgotten their bumps and bruises, overwhelmed with excitement at their first 'team-up'.

"Everyone all right?" Robin asked.

"Robin, that was amazing! Can we do it again?" Blast asked. Despite himself, Robin gave a ghost of a smile.

"You guys are alright?"

"Sure as shootin'!" Blast said.

"Our parents probably won't be happy about our costumes though." Bolt said: indeed, all their costumes were battered and torn.

"Mom can sew them but…" Blaze said, and suddenly was quiet. "Mr. Robin, you won't tell our parents just…well how bad we could have been hurt if we weren't so strong, will you? Because…they'll get afraid for us, and won't let us do it any more, I think."

Robin looked at Blaze's enormous eyes, and as he did his mind perused several lines of thought. One was that they were kids, and that they had been in a lot of danger: indeed, it was amazing they weren't hurt (which begged the further question that Robin would have to research to figure out the exact schematics of their powers), and despite that fact, what their parents would think when they saw the costumes…then again, Robin said, they had been an immense help, they had saved the day as much as Tim or his companions had…and with such great power, would they really listen to their parents? And if that started, could that line of thought continue down…

It was messy all around, and making any decision was a gamble. Robin didn't really care for gambling, but he'd rather throw the dice then let fate do it.

"…I suppose not, though I'd better take a look at you to be sure." Robin said. "But if I don't…well…listen to me guys."

Robin pointed to the trail of ruin Overload had scratched across part of Jump City.

"This is what I was talking about. This is what happens when power is misused. This is what we fight against. We won, but we could have won better. People could have been hurt, and a lot of people have lost things. This is why you, and us as well, still need to learn. Because winning by itself isn't always the best we can do. And we have to be at our best."

The three looked at each other, then the damage, and then nodded.

"All right." Blast said.

"Yeah." Blaze added.

"We understand." Bolt finished.

"Good." Robin said. "Because there's more to this then punching monsters. So we'll have to train more…and we should definitely help clean this up, starting tomorrow. Even if it's boring. Because our 'fun' has inconvenienced people. And being a hero is more then just saving their lives: sometimes it's about making their lives easier."

"Ok. We'll help!" Blast said.

"It's what heroes do!" Blaze added. Robin instinctively looked at Bolt, but he had nothing to say this time.

"All right. Stay here, Robin has to go do more boring stuff. Enjoy this time when you're exempt from such things." Robin said, and turned around to walk back in with the authorities. He wondered how the media spin would go this time…well, the city seemed to be on a Titan-hating kick, chances were it would be distorted for that effect…

"Robin?" Starfire asked, suddenly beside him. "I have been wondering…why did Friend Gauntlet not come to help us?"

Robin blinked, as he realized how odd that indeed was. Even if they were having troubles, Gauntlet was a good guy, not to mention a bit of a glory hound. He wouldn't just let the Titans sink or swim if he could throw them a line. But Robin hadn't seen a sign of him.

"That is strange…" Robin said, as he pulled out his communicator. Though he had taken Rob's, if the currently 'on a break' Titan was still wearing his usual clothes, he would probably still have the tracking chips implanted in them. You could never have too many safety precautions when you were a superhero.

But Robin could find no signal.

"Nothing. Maybe he's out of the city…" Robin said. He converted his communicator to its phone mode and dialed Rob's home phone number.

"Hello." Came the answer, and Robin briefly grew tense. It wasn't Rob's parents, nor his brother, adopted sister, or grandmother who had answered. It was Pangloss, the insanely powerful demi-god being who had given Rob the Gauntlet and who lived with his family, leeching off them in his immense laziness. Chances were he'd answered the phone because he wanted no background noise for whatever TV show he was watching, and the fact he'd answered said phone instead of willing it into another dimension showed he was probably in the most decent mood Pangloss could get: he COULD be civil, but he was an immensely hedonistic creature and hence his mood could change in a second. Normally Robin would just hang up rather then spin the lottery wheel talking with Pangloss could be, but Pangloss could find that rude, use his powers to figure out who called, and then turn Robin into a toad. Then again, if he did talk with Pangloss, Pangloss could decide he didn't like Robin's tone or choice of words and turn him into a newt.

It was situations like this, incidentally, why Robin didn't care for gambling.

"Uh, hello Mr. Pangloss." Robin said, in a tone so overly, ridiculously polite that he probably wouldn't even use it as Batman, as Starfire arched an eyebrow. "This is Robin. We were wondering if…"

"Heya Bird Boy, what's up? Did you enjoy that birthday gift I sent you?"

Robin was stunned into silence, not sure what was going on. He wondered if it was too late to hang up. Or if he should just lie.

In the end he rolled the dice and told the truth.

"Uh, what birthday gift, uh, sir?" Robin said.

"Oh, maybe I'm thinking of Batgirl. You two are pretty much the same thing after all." Pangloss said. Robin let the various issues of that sentence pass.

"Well uh sir…" Robin said, grinding his teeth. "I know you don't like to be interrupted from…whatever it is you do, but I just had a quick…"

"Man, I've just been watching "As the Planet Revolves in Its Orbit." Can you believe that Paul was Dianne's sex changed half twin?" Pangloss asked.

"…Um, I don't have much time to watch TV, so..." Robin started.

"Oh, so you're one of those so-called intellectuals that hates TV, is that it? Don't let your kids watch it?" Pangloss said.

You can forgive Robin for panicking.

"No no no! Nothing like that!" Robin said. "Uh, I don't even have kids..."

"Want some? I can will them into existence for you."

"NO! Um, no thank you, sir, Mister Pangloss. Thanks for the offer, though. Now, I can't seem to get ahold of Rob and…"

"Hey, I thought you were supposed to keep an eye on him!"

"Uh, gah, well, we normally do, but I had to discipline him, so he's temporarily suspended."

"Ah, spare the rod spoil the child and all that. By the way, bet you a pizza he's in the right about whatever you think he's being crazy about." Pangloss said matter of factly.

"O...kay... so, is he over there?"

"Nope! If he was, you'd be hearing the sounds of toadying and begging for my favor in the background. Talk to you later, Batgirl, or whoever you are... I wanna call you... Larry?"

"Um..." Robin said, and decided not to correct him. Pangloss really didn't care for being corrected, even if he was utterly wrong. "Larry is close enough. Bye."

Robin hung up the phone and let out a breath. Well at least he was still a bipedal mammal…

…and then he realized something.

"Nuts. I got so nervous that I forgot to ask him if Rob was okay..."

And then suddenly Beast Boy, still talking with Terra and the Zap Pack some feet away, disappeared in a poof of green smoke, and even as Terra and the Zap Pack were yelling in surprise, he reappeared…in Robin's hand, having been turned into a carrier pigeon.

Robin and Starfire stared for a moment, eyes wide, before Robin noticed there was a note tied to Beast Boy's leg. Since Gar seemed as stunned at they were, Robin was able to take the note off before he turned human again.

"Larry Boy-I forgot to mention, Rob is not in any serious danger. Also, it would kill you to call more often? Pangloss the Mighty." Robin read aloud. "…Well, good to know."

"He scares me." Starfire commented, as Beast Boy turned back, something Terra saw as she started running over.

"HE ALWAYS DOES THAT! Every single stinkin' time we see him or are involved with him, POOF! I get warped somewhere! No one else, always me!" Beast Boy said.

"Gar, what happened?" Terra said as she ran up.

"Pangloss." Robin said. Even for Terra, that was all that was needed.

"I guess we should tell the kids it was a magic trick or something." Terra said.

"That would be best." Robin replied.

"Well, at least this time it wasn't some order to get good tasting potato chips from that health food store he teleported me to." Beast Boy said.

"And I think we all want to forget the 'Beast Girl' incident." Terra added…as Beast Boy yelped and then fell to the ground in a fetal position.

"…And maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all there." Terra said, as she helped Gar up and dragged him back to the Zap Pack while Beast Boy muttered nonsense under his breath.

"Well, if Pangloss says Rob is not in danger, I guess he's just out of range." Robin said. He was about to say something else when the communicator rang. Not in the same way it would if one Titan was calling another: this was the phone mode again. Robin, really hoping it wasn't Pangloss again, answered.

"This is Robin. Code word." Robin said: not many people had this number but again, safety precautions.

Starfire watched, as Robin relaxed a bit.

"Hello Detective King. No I'm all right. Lots of property damage but we seem to have lucked out on injuries and casualties…" Robin said: it was apparently one of Robin's contacts on the police force. Though his name did not sound familiar.

"Do you…what? WHAT?" Robin said, as his eyes widened. "When did this happen…what…!" Robin said, as he wandered away from Starfire, clearly needing quiet. Starfire understood, and left him alone.

Robin was on the phone (so to speak) for nearly twenty minutes, mostly listening, before he finally signed off and walked back to Starfire, his face grim.

"What is wrong?"

"…There have been three more kidnappings."

"WHAT?…You mean?"

"Yes." Robin replied. Starfire gasped. She only knew very vague details about the case Robin was working on and little more about crime patterns, but even she knew that three kidnappings in such a short span of time was aberrant.

"Today?"

"Specifically, during the exact time we were engaged in battle with Overload." Robin said, feeling the heaviness in his chest. He didn't like where this was going, and he had a very bad feeling it was only going to get worse.

"Three?"

"One was snatched from a mall, and two others from parks. But there's a big amount of difference this time. Apparently all the previous ones were vanishings, kids taken away when the parents weren't looking. In this case…two of the three groups of parents saw the kidnapper…or rather, what took their kid. Because…well, it wasn't human."

"What?'

"I don't know if it was a creature or something, but what they saw…the claims are incoherent. One claim was it was like whatever took the kids was invisible, but not because it was hiding itself, but as if it was…making it so people couldn't see it. Only one of the fathers managed to get close enough to try and save his kid, and when he was about five-ten feet away from it he suddenly got so dizzy he nearly passed out. By the time he recovered the kidnapper had escaped in his vehicle. We have nearly ten witness reports of this…hiding, cloaking effect. Almost like it was a half-ass way to make up for the blatant snatch and grab methods of these three. They were nothing like the previous ones."

"So, they may not be connected?"

"I'm not sure Star…but…three kidnappings, all by the same person or persons, possibly using high tech to aid their crime…and all which happen while we are occupied with Overload, who has somehow gotten a massive power boost that I would gamble is also due to some kind of high tech? Coincidences do happen Star but…my gut doesn't like this. It doesn't like it at all. And if it IS connected…I don't want to know how bad it could get Star, because it could get so bad that…" Robin trailed off. "We need to wrap up here, get the Zap Pack home. They're way too young to even conceive of this problem, let along help…then get back to the Tower, I need to put my nose to the grindstone, try and find some kind of way to help…because…"

"I know." Starfire said. "I know."

Robin sighed.

"You know, when talking to the Zap Pack, you speak of the best of humanity…yet its things like this that make you think that maybe humanity, mankind, is more skewed towards acting towards the worst side of itself…that maybe in the end a man would rather do the bad thing then the good."

"That's what we fight against." Starfire said.

"Yeah, but still." Robin said, as they started walking back to the group.

* * *

He still wasn't aware he was being watched.

Even now.

"What would you know of doing bad?" He said in the shadows. "From where I'm standing, all things considered, I did pretty good…and you couldn't do worse if you tried. All of you."

He chuckled and sipped at his drink.

"I finally have all I need. And as soon as I arrange…the sale, then Robin…you'll get a real lesson in the realities of good and bad. Your FINAL lesson."

_To be continued_


	32. Youth of the Nation: The Anakin Factor

Chapter 34: The Anakin Factor

Indeed, Gauntlet had a very good reason for not being around for the battle and for not showing up on the scans: he wasn't in Jump City at all.

Though he really didn't like where he had ended up, but after being kicked off the Titans because Robin had so much wool pulled over his eyes you expected him to start cursing out Serta mattresses, he couldn't really think of where else to go and who else to talk to. Besides home, and home wasn't a good option at the moment. If Rob went home during Spring Cleaning, he'd be asked to help. The fact that it was June didn't perturb him; after all, he had avoided two spring cleanings in a row, and his mother might very well insist on him doing a few chores to make up the difference.

Plus, it may have been Sweeps (Rob could never remember when sweeps were). You did not interrupt Pangloss when it was Sweeps week. Those who did barely escaped with their lives, and one had actually petitioned that Jim Croce's famous song should be rewritten in regards to this gravest of errors. That was how much you did not interrupt Pangloss during Sweeps week.

So here he was, despite how much he didn't care for it. The whole place stank of foulness, a concentration of the wrong and the fallen. Then again, perhaps Gauntlet had fallen too, and that was why he was speaking with the man in front of him.

"I mean, you knew the Titans pretty well: longer then I did, at least. I still can't believe they just tossed me aside like that!" Rob complained from where he was sitting, looking at the confused face across from him, its features clearly showing that the man was barely comprehending what he was saying. "Y'see, at first I was almost doing it as a joke. Then again, I do a lot of things just as a joke. Then my joking, weird ramblings started making too much sense. I mean, nobody is THAT innocent. It was like the Family Circus with superpowers! Did you know their dog is even named Arfie?"

More stunned confusion.

"So I had to tell them, but they won't listen to me without evidence. But I know I'm right, and I know they're in big trouble if they don't listen to me. These…THINGS took out Kurai in under ten seconds. What chance do WE have if we aren't prepared?"

"Look mate, that's nice an' all, but WHY THE HELL ARE YOU TELLING ME!?" Jack Djinn expostulated, as he shifted from the chair that he was tied to with heavy chains. Arkham had more then a few restraint options as it turned out.

"I like sharing. Plus, it's not like anybody likes you or thinks you have value as a human being, so you have plenty of spare time." Rob said, as Jack glared death at him. "Plus I wanted to see if you got my Christmas gift."

"Oh you mean THESE?" Jack said, as he lowered his right stump and came back up with a pair of mittens hanging from it.

"Oh good, I was worried I got the zip code wrong."

"I HAVE NO HANDS YOU (CENSORED!)" Jack yelled. No, he did not actually yell censored, nor did his curse inexplicably come out as a beep: Rob had produced an air horn and honked it at the appropriate time.

"You already skirted on the language issue enough Aussie."

"STOP CENSORING ME! YOU'RE AS BAD AS CARTOON NERTWORK WHEN I APPEARED ON BILLY AND MANDY!"

* * *

On a bus. 

"So, token black friend, what's up?" Billy said in his ever-clueless tone and way, so it was no surprise he didn't notice that it was actually Jack dressed up as Irwin.

"(CENSORED) you, moron." Jack replied.

* * *

"…did I just do a Family Guy esque non-sequitur joke?" Jack said incredulously. 

"Yup."

"ARGH! (CENSORED) YOU! I'LL KILL ALL YOUR (CENSORED) FRIENDS AND YOU TOO FOR THIS! YOU AND YOUR (CENSORED) (CENSORED) (CENSORED) DOGS! YOU…"

"All right, enough of this." The guards said as they headed into the room…and began dragging Rob away.

"HEY! WHAT THE HECK?"

"Haven't you ever heard of appropriate noise levels? Dumb kid." One of the guards said as they confiscated Rob's air horn. "Now if you're not actually going to contribute to a criminal investigation, please be on your way."

And Rob found himself locked out of the room as the guards went back in to restrain Jack. Apparently they felt with his powers the teenager could take care of himself when it came to leaving. Or they were overworked. Or incompetent. No, probably the second one: the third probably ensured a short life span in such a dangerous place as Arkham Asylum.

"Well that was a big heap of nothin'." Rob commented as he started heading down the hallway of doors that Noel had passed by not too long ago. Unlike Noel, who had connected too deeply with the place (perhaps an omen), Rob was bothered but at a level he could handle. Besides, chances were any kind of assault on him would be purely physical and with the Gauntlet Rob had a definite trump card there. Nonetheless, he was more alert then he normally was.

Which let him hear the slight metallic ringing slightly before the pause that preceded the voice.

"Kid." Came the low, rough growl. "Come here."

Rob turned to look at the speaker, as the face of Harvey 'Two-Face' Dent looked back at him through barred windows, his two sides perfectly bisected by a metal bar (and Rob couldn't help but wonder if Harvey hadn't positioned himself that way on purpose). Even in an asylum as corrupted and tainted as Arkham, the innate dignity of Harvey's undamaged side was still clear on his face, the face that had once served the law before the devastating acid attack had scarred the other side a deep, blistered and cracked purple distortion of human features, a deed that had broken the paved-over dysfunctions Dent had carried within him from constant abuse suffered as a child, bringing them into full, rotten bloom as a separate and immensely vicious alternate personality. Dent was definitely one of the more sympathetic inmates of this madhouse, but that didn't make him any less sick or any less dangerous.

"…no thank you Dent, unless you can give me one good reason."

"I have two." Dent said, holding out his coin. "Clean side. You're safe until the next need for a toss. And we tossed it because I overheard your conversation with the misogynist. We don't know why you bothered to provoke him, he can't provide you with anything. But I can."

"Like what?"

"This is clearly a situation of two. Not to mention that you know what we once were. I saw more then a few juvenile criminals go through the courts on their way to their respective punishments. I know how children given inappropriate power act."

"You also decide your actions entirely on coin tosses. Forgive me if I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to hear your version of it."

"Lemme tell ya about something, kid. Most things are chance." Two-Face said, and flipped his coin.

Rob tensed as Two-Face caught and looked at it.

"Clean side again. Chance seems to favor you for now." Two-Face said. "But some things aren't chance. One of the things that isn't? Kids. Kids need to be kept on a short leash. The reason I'm the way I am is because we WEREN'T on a leash."

"Duly noted." Rob said quietly. Two-Face clearly didn't like Rob's body language, as he flipped the coin again. But once again, it came up clean, as Two-Face kept talking.

"Kid, the main leash you have is the threat of physical harm. Even if you don't get harmed, the threat, the worry…it…keeps kids in line." Two-Face said before trailing off a bit. When he started speaking again, his voice was even harsher and grating, and Rob suspected the real manifestation of the illness that drove Harvey Dent was talking to him now. "A time out ain't EVER gonna match that. When a kid gets as strong as those three are…"

"Where'd you hear about them anyway?" Rob asked, as he didn't think Dent had overheard enough from his conversation with Jack to speak on the subject with such precision.

"I flipped the coin. It came up bad, so we watched a couple of hours of Fox News last week." Two-Face said. "But you interrupted me. So I'm gonna have to see if I should forgive you or not."

Flip.

"Good heads again. You'd best not be manipulating the coin, boy."

"Even if I was, could you prove it?"

"Too true. Two true. I'll keep going." Two-Face said. "External forces help you have internal forces as an adult. Don't have 'em as a kid, you won't have any as a grown up. And if you have internal forces as a kid, you'll end up too hard on yourself and you…well, fall to pieces under the pressure."

Another coin flip. Rob was sure it was going to come up scarred this time, and was somewhat amazed when it didn't.

"These kids are too strong to have any external forces. The only one that can maybe give 'em discipline is the big blue Boy Scout. Maybe. Unless their parents ran 'em like slaves before they got super, they're going to be impossible to rein in."

"Then why are they doing things the way they are?" Rob found himself asking, and then mentally slapped himself. _Try not to listen to the confirmed patient of the mental asylum you WEREN'T planning to visit._

"Because they obviously had enough discipline to want to be good. I know the feeling. We give into it about half the time."

Flip.

Rob wondered if there was a record for 'most good gotten out of Harvey Dent due to coin tosses'.

If there was, he was probably challenging for it as the coin came up clean again.

"But the life you children live is hard. You GOTTA be good. Constantly. There's no out. And a trapped animal will lash out even when it isn't in danger. And you people put yourselves in danger all the time. These kids will feel trapped. And they will lash out. And God help us all then."

Rob swallowed bitterly.

"I can sleep at night knowing I can buy a kryptonite bullet if Superman ever gives me trouble. And even if I failed, he has discipline. He won't do me any real damage. But that kind of power…with kids egging each other on…and no discipline…they'll break the world."

"Do you have something resembling a point to all this doomsaying?"

Flip.

"….Pray you're wrong. Find out for sure. And if there is something up about them…tell somebody with a lot more power then you."

"Is that the scarred side finally?"

"No boy, the clean once more." Two-Face said. "But if you really want to know…"

Flip, and Two-Face's whole demeanor changed, going from a coiled tiger to one with fresh blood on its lips. The streak had finally broken.

"The soft whiner read a book once, where these two kids were genetic experiments. They had been placed with normal families to grow up some, for some forgotten purpose. Among their gifts was an immensely powerful healing ability that left them virtually immortal: nothing could harm or kill them. But these two boys don't know they're special, at least not until near the end of the book. And before that, both kids were what you'd call good. As bullshit as that is." Two-Face snarled. The REAL Two-Face, the madness that had spawned and overwhelmed Harvey Dent, not just the name a paper had hoisted on the damned district attorney. His tone was pure growling venom, as if rabies had been given a voice to express itself, and Rob had to struggle to keep his body language from becoming defensive. "But then the two kids stumble across their gift. How they can't be harmed. And what these two kids come to has always stuck with both of us. One tells the other 'we can do whatever we want, because no one can hurt us'. And with that, these two kids go from good to smiling monsters by the end of the book, totally assured of their immortality and totally free of conscience and fear because of it. And that was just being unkillable. These three are more then even that."

A brief pause.

"Slit their throats in their sleep with something that IS hard enough to cut them. Don't bother trying to find out if they're up to something. Assume they are, protect yourself, and the rest of us."

"…weighing both sides, I think I'll go with the good head." Rob said.

"You would." Two-Face snapped, and flipped again.

And from his visage calming down again, just a touch, the clean side had apparently returned.

"And of course, you should. That's the one that came up. But life…maybe nearly all the time it is, but sometimes, it isn't like the coin…like the coin…" Two-Face said, as he looked at his trademark. "Probably is, after all, the science of uncertainty…and I have been getting a lot of good heads lately…wait…what…THOSE BASTARDS GAVE ME A WEIGHTED COIN!"

"Shit." A nearby guard cursed.

And Two-Face promptly lost his, as he bellowed in a rage unlike anything Rob had heard and lunged out through the bars at the young teenager. Of course, Rob was at the other end of the hallway, far out of reach of Two-Face's clawing hands, and after a second to realize that Two-Face turned his explosive reaction on the door, hammering on it and bellowing like a wounded bear. The heavily reinforced door shook under his assault.

Rob left as the hissing sound began, tranquilizing gas pumping into Harvey's room, even as heavily armored and padded guards ran down the hallway. That was the downside of serving in a lunatic asylum: you had to at least try and make sure (in theory) the inmates didn't hurt themselves, like Harvey might just do considering his current fury. Rob would have offered to help, but there were eight guards armed with clubs and tasers, and the gas had started affecting Two-Face even as Rob had left. He knew they didn't need his help.

And since they were occupied, Rob decided to make one last stop.

"Hey Mister Nigma. I just wanted to say I'm a big fan." Gauntlet said outside the cell of the Riddler roughly two minutes later. "Most of the Titans think you're a joke, since you always give yourself away, but I know the truth. You're so awesome that you intentionally handicap yourself, and I can respect that. Can I get your autograph?"

"Oh hah hah. You damned sarcastic punk." Edward Nigma groused at his window.

"Huh?" Rob said, his eyes widening a touch.

"I get enough grief from the usual suspects in here, I don't need it from some outsider. GUARDS! GUARDS! I am being harassed, get rid of this annoyance or maybe I'll flip out like Dent!"

"What!?" Rob said, shocked that Nigma couldn't tell he was being totally serious.

"You heard him." A spare guard said. "You've stirred things up enough here kid. Time to make like a chimney sweep and haul ash, as Mr. Clever here might say."

"The fact that you'd attribute such a shopworn turn of phrase to me clearly shows you don't understand me at all, let alone what would make me clever…" Nigma griped as the guard escorted Rob away…and then had to make a break back to Dent's cell when the out of control maniac proved to be not as tranquilized as believed.

Feeling crosser then he'd like, Rob started for the exit.

Then, for a moment, paused, then produced a T-Shirt and hat that he put on, and then continued to the exit.

Past the cell of Poison Ivy.

Wearing a T-Shirt and hat emblazoned with the slogan **_'Fuck The Rainforest'_**.

The plant-obsessed mutant lunatic reacted about as well as one could expect, as Rob walked on. A rather weary guard was standing nearby, looking at the teenager with an expression of resigned annoyance.

"And just what do you have against Miss Isley?" The guard asked.

"Because she's on the way to the exit." Rob replied matter of factly.

"YOU BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Poison Ivy screamed, hammering on her plastisteel glass viewer. Unlike Two-Face, she possessed neither an overly large body or the strength that came with it (and which spiked dramatically in mad fits): her weapons came from the poisons she exuded and the plants she commanded, and with her biokinesis sealed by protective shielding and with seven inches of ultra dense plastic and steel between her and Rob, the only victim of Ivy's rage was likely to be the door and the ears of whoever was around.

Which unfortunately included that guard.

"You'll understand if we ask you to never come back again." The guard said tersely.

"Eh, s'alright." Rob said, and with that he left Arkham Asylum.

It took him two days to get back to Jump, but that was still enough time for the attack of Mega-Overload to be in the papers, and the Zap Pack's role in defeating the supercharged creature and in cleaning up after his mess.

Rob sighed as he tossed the paper aside and fell down on the bed at the hotel he was staying at, as he leaned over and once again picked up The Junior Hero's Guide to Plot Cycles.

"Chapter 49: So you've gone too far and the media and/or your team hates you and thinks you're crazy/evil. There is no formula for dealing with this, so your best bet is to just back off for a bit."

And Rob actually wanted to. But he kept returning to that nagging in the back of his head, and the words, however misguided they might have been, of Harvey Dent.

"There has to be a flaw somewhere. There's always something overlooked or underdone. And it would have to be something Robin wouldn't think of looking for himself…hnnnnnnnn…maybe that's the problem. This whole thing is set up to handle any approach Robin might make. I have to stop thinking like him. I need to approach this from MY viewpoint. Whatever shadowy cabal of wrongdoers planted this pint sized fifth column, they weren't counting on Robert Alexander Candide! I just need to do it my way and the whole insidious plot will unravel like the plot of a Uwe Boll movie! SURELY I'll be justified and vindicated if I do that! And god I miss my friends: I can't stop talking to myself!"

* * *

And so, the very next day, Rob began to approach the problem from his viewpoint. 

The problem was, the very nature of Robert Candide ensured he didn't just think outside the box, he thought outside the whole city block.

Which probably explained that in a city park in the suburbs called Gullmore, there stood a fountain…with Robert Candide on top of it, pretending to be a statue.

The fact that Rob was alone with no one to bounce his particular brand of logic off of probably contributed to this choice of action, but if you asked him, Rob would have explained that an opening to this mystery might lay in the understanding of the psychology of children, and the best way to start understanding people was to watch and study them. As for why Rob couldn't just sit on a bench and do this…well, he had a better view from up here on the fountain.

One might also question with the fact of just how spastic Rob tended to be, how he was actually able to stand so still he resembled a statue, but what many people did not know was that Rob's mother had been a true-blue real deal ninja, and she'd taught him more then a few interesting things. There were some stories and aspects of his life that Rob told everyone he could, including random people on the street…but that was not one of them.

And so, he was able to successfully mimic a statue, and since he was brand new, he attracted the attention of the kids playing in the park.

The hole in Rob's thinking quickly became very absent as he also attracted a group of pigeons.

Amazingly, it was not an act of bird defecation that undid Rob's 'brilliant scheme'. Rather, it was the fact that a group of rather unpleasant looking kids decided the birds on Rob's form made perfect targets, and preceded to hurl a score of rocks at them.

Rob, unfortunately, was a bigger target.

"OW! OW! Why did I think this would work?" Rob yelled, as the kids freaked out at the statue coming to life.

They freaked out more when Rob jumped down and promptly gave furious chase, swearing revenge for the rock attack.

* * *

"In retrospect, an adult man threatening kids in broad daylight in a public place is not a smart thing to do, as the mothers who sprayed me with mace and the police who then beat me with nightsticks can attest. I knew I shouldn't have stuck my communicator in an ankle strap." Rob said to the ice cream man he was talking too as he held a bag of ice to his bruised face. "Next time, it's going in my pocket. At least they bought my story. And they saved me the trouble of spending too much time trying to arrive at my conclusion. My conclusion is, children are jerks." 

"Right, kid. You were completely and utterly blameless here. The whole chasing the kids threatening bodily harm with your superpowers was just one big misunderstanding." The ice cream man replied, clearly not too sympathetic to Rob's plight.

"THEY ASSAULTED ME!" Rob protested.

"And they're good customers, while you tried to talk yourself into a 'superhero discount'."

"Fine!" Rob said as he stomped off. "But the next time Doctor Light comes calling, YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN!"

"Doctor Light is also a better customer then you."

"WHAT?"

"Hey Frank." Doctor Light said as he strolled up to the ice cream truck to purchase his daily vanilla cone.

"ARGH!" Rob yelled as he resumed stomping off, so upset it didn't even occur to him Frank the ice cream man was serving a wanted criminal. "Okay, this didn't work out precisely as planned. Maybe throwing Robin's viewpoint completely out the window was a bad idea. Maybe I should try and take some aspects of it. I just need to think of the ones that haven't been compromised by whatever evil mastermind is pulling this stunt. Well, Robin was always considered to be a highly skilled detective with incredible potential…that's it! I'll become a detective as well! Better still, I'll do it Dick Tracy style, thus doing a reference that nobody under thirty will get! Plus, I can go get some smokes and booze! That'll complete the package. It's not like Private Eyes have to licensed or something. No one will have expected that kind of adaptation of tactic from me! I'll catch 'em with their pants down this time! Oh god, I'm doing it again. And the Prince of Persia thought he had a problem!"

* * *

Rob's friends were actually rather aware of his absence as well, though at the time of those thoughts, on the morning of the day Rob tried his park statue stunt, they had other concerns. 

"We've been busy, so I haven't had the time, but I just wanted to say good jobs kids. You did a lot of good stuff over these past few days." Robin said as he and the reduced in number Titans stood on the sandy and rocky beach on one end of their island, having finally found the time to schedule another lesson with the Zap Pack.

The Zap Pack cheered and did a jumping 'hand slap', which only excited kids or drunk fratboys seemed to be able to pull off.

"BUT…" Robin said. "These past few days also demonstrate why you need to be trained. And before you protest, just hear me out. Yes, you're willing and eager to be trained today, but what about tomorrow? Next week? In a month? This isn't just a hobby you can pick up and put down at your leisure. And before you start thinking all you need is your powers, the battle with Overload demonstrates just why you need more then your powers to be successful in this world."

"But we won." Blast protested.

"Yes, we did. But look at how we won, or more specifically, all the running in circles we had to do before we won. We kept hitting Overload a hundred different ways with all kinds of strong attacks, and he just kept on coming. To beat him, we had to use our brains. What if you'd be alone, Zap Pack, against him? What would you have done as you found your attacks, as strong as they were, seemed completely ineffective, as they did before we managed the final setup?"

The Zap Pack was silent.

"You see what I mean. To give a specific example, Blast, that two-handed laser sword you did to Overload near the end. Very good, very effective, did the job of distracting him as I asked…but you lucked out. You thought of it over the water. If you'd done it on land, you could have sliced through whatever was behind Overload for who knows how far. You can see why that would be a bad thing."

"Oops…" Blast said. The other two giggled in the way kids did when a peer was singled out. "Hey shut up!"

"Children, children, please. No fighting, and no taunting each other. You all made errors. What if you'd missed your dive bomb attack Bolt? Or what if something had flown in front of you when you'd unleashed a fire attack Blaze?"

The two blushed, which was evident even on Bolt's dark features.

"Precisely. But relax. You're kids. None of us came equipped with Masters Degrees in Heroic Deeds when we started this job."

"That's for sure." Beast Boy cracked as he smirked at Terra, and then 'ooofed' as she elbowed him in the ribs.

"Guys? Not now." Robin said. "So, as you've seen, you need to learn more. Not just the relation of your powers and the rest of the world, but how they act, react, and how much you can influence them. Learn that properly, and the sky's the limit."

The Zap Pack nodded, still a bit chastened from the criticism, but still quite eager. Robin decided that was enough critiquing for one lesson and moved on.

"Terra here is a good example. She had a lot of trouble with her powers when she started out. We didn't just teach her how to control them…"

"They taught me to think outside the box." Terra picked up, as she cracked her knuckles. "Sure, I can cause earthquakes and throw rocks, but there's so much more to it then that! Observe…dirt cushion!" Terra said, and violently pratfalled forward…into a hand of sand that caught her and pushed her back up to her feet.

As she began spitting sand out of her mouth.

"Didn't fully think that one through." Terra choked, as the Zap Pack cracked up, and Terra helped herself to a bottle of water to rinse her mouth. "But that sand appendage was a lot better then violently falling on my face. And I can even do that with solid rock. Which can be quite useful as I'm nowhere near as enduring as you guys. Now, next: equilibrium disruption!"

And Terra snapped her fingers, and the ground began to shift and warp violently beneath the feet of her fellows…at least until everyone save Robin flew off the ground, and only because Starfire carried Robin.

"What the…HEY! CHEATING!" Terra said as she waved her fist. "I'm trying to teach here!"

"We don't need to learn what Beast Boy had for breakfast, thank you." Robin said as he returned to the ground.

"Uh, Robin?" Blast said.

"Yes?"

"What's ekqalibram?"

"What? Oh, right." Robin said: he had to remember he was talking to children who had spent barely a decade on this planet. "It has to do with balance. People who lose their balance are easier targets."

"Because they're too busy falling to defend, right?" Bolt offered.

"Yes, that's basically it…" Robin replied.

Bolt smiled in pleasure.

"Show off." Blast commented.

"Kids, kids. Remember. Anyway, learning your powers takes time. Beast Boy used to be able to only turn into currently living animals. But while he was working under the Doom Patrol, he learned how to turn into extinct animals. Later on, he learned how to turn into mystical animals. I believe he's working on some alien species at the moment." Robin said. "At least he will if I ever let him do it in the Tower again after he turned into the Multi-Bummed Farting Whoits or whatever and stank up the Tower for two weeks."

"DUDE! You said you'd never talk about that in public!" Beast Boy protested with exaggerated mortification, as the Zap Pack cracked up again.

"I still find myself unable to engage in the ingesting of yolked products." Starfire commented, as Beast Boy growled and stamped his feet (entirely for the sake of the Zap Pack's amusement of course).

"Okay guys, kids. Air, breathe." Robin said, as the Zap Pack finally calmed down after nearly twenty seconds of laughter. "Anyway, you seem to get the idea. So time to get to today's lesson." Robin said, nodding at Beast Boy, who zipped off and returned with the Fake Cyborg robot once more.

"Now this time…"

"BOO-YAH!" Fakeborg yelled, making Robin jump again.

"Will SOMEONE PLEASE TURN THAT OFF?" Robin snapped, as the Zap Pack began laughing once again.

"You got me where the off switch is." Beast Boy said. Robin spent the next three minutes pouring over the robot, but any type of deactivating switch he found resulted in the robot being completely turned off. After a bit, Robin resigned himself to being stuck with it.

"Now this time…" Robin said, and then paused as his eyes snapped sideways towards the robot, which remained silent this time. "We've modified his cannon to shoot large round red targets out into the ocean. Today's lesson is distance shooting: you're going to practice hitting targets accurately from far away."

"Okay." Was the general reply.

"Unfortunately, I cannot stay to be part of this." Robin said, as the Zap Pack made disappointed noises. "I know, but there's a lot of responsibility in being the Titans' leader: it means I have to do other stuff at times like this. But I'll be keeping an eye on you. Now Terra, if you would."

"On it." Terra said, as her eyes and hands glowed gold. A moment later a wall of rock about three feet tall and wide had sprung up beneath the feet of the Titans and Zap Pack, rather startling the young kids.

"What's this for?" Blaze asked.

"The targets will be on the water. Bolt has electrical powers. Water, especially salt water, conducts electricity very well, and we're standing on a beach. No sense risking being on something that will electrocute you." Robin said. "You take it from here guys. I have to go."

The Zap Pack made more disappointed noises as Robin hopped down and headed off. To distract them, Beast Boy put on his (metaphorical) clown mask and pretended to have great difficulty loading up the large red target orbs to Fakeborg's modified arm cannon, which succeeded in properly distracting them.

"BOO-YAH!" Fakeborg declared as Beast Boy finally synched the ball to the cannon.

"All right them, ready aim and PULL!" Beast Boy said, as he fired the ball out into the sea at a distance of about thirty feet. "Who wants to go first? Don't take too long, or the ball will float away."

"BOO-YAH!" Fakeborg declared.

Blaze went first, but her initial fireball missed. As did her second, and third. Making a noise of frustration, Blaze fired a spray of fireballs that exploded across the sea and succeeding in blowing up the target orb. Blaze celebrated.

"Uh…it is good you hit the target young Blaze, but remember, the target will not always be in a completely open area that utterly lacks collateral damage."

"What's clateral?" Blaze asked.

"Um…if that orb was a villain and he was surrounded by people, what do you think firing a mass of blasts would risk doing?"

"…oh…sorry." Blaze said, looking shamed.

"It's all right. I as a young one often found myself being inaccurate with my enterprises as well." Starfire said.

"…what?"

"Um, counterfactual with my papoose?"

"Huh?"

"Boo-yah!" Vented in the background.

"Fallacious with my desideratum?"

"I don't understand you!" Blaze complained.

"She MISSED. A LOT." Beast Boy helpfully interjected.

"Oh! Well why didn't she say so?"

"I…did?" Starfire said in confusion. Blaze just goggled.

Beast Boy had by now reloaded the launcher arm on Fakeborg, and fired the second orb (with another cry of "BOO-YAH!") out into the sea.

Blast went next, and while he didn't lose his temper like Blaze had, it was clear he was heading down that path as it took him six shots to nail the target.

"Good, good." Terra encouraged. To his credit, Blast didn't complain: he was just happy he got it.

Beast Boy set up another shot (and amazingly during the setup and launch Fakeborg did not say 'Boo-yah'), and Bolt was up.

"BOO-YAH!"

Spoke too soon.

Bolt had a harder time then his companions, as lightning was considerably harder to form into a casual projectile shape then fire or destructive energy. Bolt spent several minutes zapping all around the target, and just as Starfire wondered if he was going to figure out ball lightning he finally struck it. He made an annoyed grunt.

"Good work Bolt: that one WAS further away then the others." Terra said to ward off any teasing. Blast made a slight frown as Terra apparently cut off his chance to do just that.

"BOO-YAH!" Fakeborg 'agreed'.

"Is that ALL it can say?" Terra said, looking annoyed.

"BOO-YAH!" Fakeborg declared for the…well it may be a number yet undiscovered by modern mathematics.

"Well no, I think it does have a few other settings…" Beast Boy said, as he went around the back of the robot and began fiddling with some buttons. He did that for a bit. "Here. French."

"Le boo-yah!" Fakeborg declared.

"Japanese." Beast Boy said as he pressed another button.

"Boo-yah-san!"

"Yakov Smirnoff?"

"In Soviet Russia, yah boos you!"

Beast Boy chuckled, and then, looking at the blank faces of his two teammates AND the Zap Pack, suddenly felt incredibly old. Well, if trying to explain the routine of a briefly popular 80's comedian was the worst thing that happened to him this week, he'd take it.

Unable to figure out any better changes, Beast Boy left the settings on their original version and reloaded another target orb.

Blaze went for the second time, and while she didn't lose her temper, it still took her eight tries to hit the orb. She frowned and then stuck her tongue out at the remnants of the explosion while pulling the skin beneath her right eye down.

Beast Boy shot off another orb, and Blast took his second try. This time he tried forming his hand into the shape of a gun and firing blasts from the tip of his finger, but that didn't much help his 'sights', as it took him five shots to hit the orb.

Bolt came up next, looking pleased with himself, as Beast Boy readied another shot. Watching the child, Beast Boy launched the orb.

And Bolt fired. Not at the orb, but directly into the water, as the electrical blast coursed across the surface of the ocean and struck the orb almost instantly, blowing it to pieces.

"Boo-yah." Bolt triumphed.

"HEY! THAT'S CHEATING!" Blast protested.

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"Guys! Guys! There's no such thing as cheating here!" Terra protested, getting between the two kids before they started fighting.

"Indeed. Bolt simply took advantage of the particular nature of his power." Starfire said. Bolt grinned. Blast scowled.

"However, one should point out that wouldn't always serve him. For example, if Bolt was UNDER the water, he'd be unable to use his projectile attacks at all, while you Blast, would have no such problem. It's all about training and circumstance." Starfire said.

"And this isn't a competition. There's no rewards or trophies here." Beast Boy said. "We just want you to learn, at whatever pace you have to."

"Okay…" Was, once again, the general reply.

"Bolt, new task for you. You're going to try and shoot it out of mid-air, okay?"

"Okay."

"The other two of you, same thing for now. Okay, Blaze, you're up again…" Beast Boy said as he loaded another shot.

* * *

While Robin had said he would be watching the training sessions, his definition of 'watching' was open to a lot of interpretation, especially when he was working. And he was working quite hard at the moment, so his watching pretty much was limited to occasional glances at a nearby screen that was showing the training as Robin furiously worked at the computer. 

Tim Drake had been pretty good at multitasking before, and several years of Bat-training and events had sharpened his juggling ability to a fine edge. It helped when you had several dozen million dollars worth of high tech equipment at your fingertips.

Not that all that gear was helping Robin now, as a nearby printer suddenly began spewing forth paper covered with something or other. Robin took it and sped-red through the results, and then with a silent groan leaned back and rubbed his head.

There were two primary tasks Robin was working on, and the secondary one was in regards to his promise to Clayton Bonaparte: try and puzzle out the mystery of the source of the Zap Pack's powers.

And he was getting nowhere on that regard. His studies of the records that Clayton had given him had turned up no anomalies, both on the children's before and after states. Robin had even hacked the various databases of the medical establishments around Jump to check if the records had been fudged or altered, but no, everything matched up, including entry dates. Medical technology, at least at the average standard, could determine nothing was different about Edgar Bonaparte, Thomas Pickard, and Tawny Rodkey then the average child, while Robin had strong evidence disputing that claim. If his examinations continued to dead end, he might actually take the kids up to the Watchtower to have them examined with that equipment (the Titans happened to know of a nearby hidden teleport pad stationed in a town near Jump).

The only other clue Robin had was the mysterious piece of metal that had supposedly crashed near the three children's houses, the metal that had possibly awarded them their powers. It was currently sitting in a device near where Robin worked, and it had just finished being scanned for the seventh time. And once again, despite all the variables Robin had added, the results were again listed as 'inconclusive': there was an x-factor (or three) in the makeup of the material that kept it from being more then just a chunk of steel pulled from a construction site.

As far as Robin could tell, the material seemed to be (more or less) a basic type of titanium, but its precise structure wasn't like any makeup that existed in Earth's databanks. Similar to how iron could be manipulated in various ways to produce the stronger variant known as steel (a process called alloying), the metal had undergone some kind of treatment…but Robin couldn't tell if it was chemical, heat, radiation, electricity, or something else entirely-based, and his efforts to figure it out had so far met with no success. That was the only (if notable) unusual thing about the metal. It gave off no kind of emission whatsoever, nor was any kind of trace of anything found in the ground where it had crashed or on the bodies of the Zap Pack (Robin had done a subtle surface scan of the kids to check). Of course, Robin hadn't yet gotten to the more invasive testing procedures (in case said testing procedures somehow damaged the 'ability' of the piece of metal to tell him what it was, so to speak), and they might finally reveal the secrets Robin was searching for. Plus, he could always review the records in greater detail, as well as a few other options. But the fact that it kept ending in a big question mark was annoying and a touch worrisome. Robin didn't want the answer to the source of the kid's powers being 'A wizard did it', because you never knew just what the 'wizard' was thinking…

But, that was the lesser of Robin's problems, as he rolled his chair over to a file cabinet, tucked the paper away into a nearby folder, closed it, and rolled back over to his computer to deal with the more pressing problem.

The fact that three kidnappings had occurred all within the time frame when the Titans and Zap Pack had been dealing with Overload had struck Robin as far too coincidental. Kidnapping was a fairly serious crime to begin with (the legacy of poor Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr): it was usually done by parents who were unaware or uncaring of the consequences or by deviants whose need to slake their particular sick urges (a fact that almost always ended with the kidnapped child dead, a sad statistic), with the occasional ransom or truly bizarre reason to round the examples out. Doing it on such a mass scale, as Robin had immensely strong suspicions was the case (but no solid proof), was pretty much unheard of. And to do it in a way that suggested that the force behind it was deliberately trying to mislead authorities in order to carry it out, especially considering the sheer damage Overload could have done had the Titans and Zap Pack not been so lucky…

The problem with most people was their immense difficulty in grasping the worst. How often was the line 'he seemed so nice and quiet' been spoken as the latest serial killer was unearthed and hauled off as his terrible crimes were catalogued? How many people went into mental spasms trying to grasp the thinking process of someone who would kill their whole family, or blow up a church, or keep a woman in a dungeon like some kind of animal? How many people quite literally preferred the reality of the line 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' because they were simply not capable of handling evil?

Robin tried not to hold it against them. It was, in many ways, simply a survival mechanism.

Albeit one he was not hampered with. When it came to crime, Tim Drake had been given an education that not only made it simple for him to think the worst, but one that made him start at the worst and see how far into the abyss it went from there.

There was no ground floor in hell, and he saw that far more often then most people could handle, but that was a nihilistic musing for another time. He had to try and solve the problem.

All right, Robin pondered, let's say the kidnappings were all connected. If that was the case, an individual or group had stolen no less then 57 children, ranging in age from 7 to 15. 32 were males, 25 females. There were 30 Caucasians, 12 African-Americans, 7 Hispanic, 6 Asian, and 2 South Indian. Their families ranged from pretty well off to the poverty line. The children had been grabbed from parks, schools, malls, amusement parks, and in four cases right out of their own back yards. And as far as Robin could tell, the only uniting factor was no ransom demand and (so far, and considering the nature of such crimes this could very well be wrong) no bodies.

Which raised the possibility that all the kids could be being held somewhere, together.

The problems with that quickly became evident. How hard would it be to keep several dozen kids concealed, completely cut off from the world? And more specifically, WHY?

Robin thought of the worst. Pedophile ring? A possibility, but this seemed far too brazen: this level of snatching was the kind that brought nuclear heat on any trace of evidence of such things, and pedophiles by their nature needed secrecy and obscurity to allow their illegal rings to function.

Slavery? It still existed, in too many dark corners of the world then Robin cared for, and occasionally the shadows within those corners slid out and blighted part of the 'brighter world' with their actions. Was some rich sicko in some backwoods country trying to set up his own topping of the _120 Days of Sodom_?

What else? Some kind of dark magic event? Robin, due to personal events, was all too familiar of the pain and suffering needed for evil forces to grant power, and the concept of what one could theoretically do with so many children…Robin shuddered briefly before letting his brain slide back into an analytical mode. He wished Raven were here: he could ask her if she knew if 57 was a number of power or something, or ask her to go through her many books to see if she could undercover any inklings that these kidnappings indicated, in black magic terms, what was going on. Well, in theory, Robin could go down to her room and do it himself, but for the most part he wouldn't have a clue where to start, not to mention more then a few of Raven's books being written in ancient, forgotten languages Robin couldn't hope to understand. Not to mention the fact that just because this was a possibility and its ugliness loomed so large didn't mean it was definite. Robin remembered the 'cult hysteria' of the 80's where a few isolated incidents were blown out of proportion and made many parents think there were legions of Satanists hiding in the shadows waiting with baited breath to steal their children for horrendous rituals: like the Red Scare before it, lives had been ruined by people caught up in misguided, panicked accusations they could not hope to escape (and unlike McCarthy, who actually HAD uncovered a fair bit of Communist spies before his ego went completely out of control, Robin was pretty sure the panic hadn't uncovered much in the way of nests of Satanists planning murder on a grand scale as tribute to Lucifer). It wouldn't do him any good to seize on any option just because it was the most horrible. No, he had to examine the evidence and see if that was the picture being painted first.

What else did that leave? Robin wasn't sure, but underneath it all was what had happened a few days ago. The three taken during Overload's rampage. Which added the real ugly possibility: not only was this all connected, but it was somehow connected to the Titans. The timing of the matter just hit too close to home for it to be coincidental. That, and the bizarre witness reports of the 'not invisible but unseen' kidnapper…

What did it all mean?

Robin began mentally reviewing the Titans' rogues gallery, trying to figure out if any of them would think to engage in a mass kidnapping scheme. It would help if he knew if this strange cloaking effect was mechanical or something else (magic? Powers?). If the Titans had encountered Mother Mae-Eye by this time, Robin would have put her at the top of the list, but her pie prison had yet to cross the Titans' doorstop, and hence she was unknown to Robin.

Who? Killer Moth? Why would he kidnap kids? Was it some twisted biological experiment? Then again, considering how whipped ol' Drury Walker was by his daughter, Robin had a hard time seeing him keeping dozens of kidnapped kids under his control. Besides, the Zap Pack had beat him up and left him in prison.

Perhaps it was the H.I.V.E? The ol' supervillain school had been pretty quiet for a while. But they weren't really interested in anyone without special abilities of some sort. Could it be possible that all the kidnapped kids had some kind of undiagnosed superpower? Maybe the H.I.V.E had invented some kind of new analyzing technology, found this out, and kidnapped the children for their own purposes? Robin recalled the Manhunter robot incident from several years back: were the kids being taken as some kind of sleeper agent program? Then again, if that was the case, it seemed rather unpractical to not only kidnap the children, but to take so many at once. If they took and returned one here and one there, it would be a lot harder to track, but if a bunch of kidnapped kids suddenly re-appeared out of nowhere…then again, the people running the H.I.V.E had never been the best at seeing the forest for the trees.

Thinking of the H.I.V.E and of such possibilities made Robin look at the screen showing the training session. It was clear the Zap Pack was quickly picking up on the aiming technique, and as Robin watched, Blast hit his target shot on the first try, and Blaze on the second, delighting the kids.

Robin smiled slightly. Worries of the H.I.V.E taking the kids was something to note, but considering the kid's sheer enthusiasm and power, they'd probably have an easier time arranging an ice skating competition in Hell then turning the Zap Pack into their brainwashed minions.

Still, it was a thought, and it still didn't answer the kidnapping problem. Robin turned back to the computer and resumed thinking.

"All right then, good guys." Beast Boy said out on the beach. "You're getting it down, so let's say we increase the distance?"

"Yay!" Went the kids, seeing this as a new fun challenge they could quickly master, now that they'd gotten over the initial hump.

Of course, it wasn't as easy as they thought. But they were learning, and eager to do so.

To the teacher Titans, it was a good day.

* * *

And so, time passed. 

And Robert Candide, Detective Extraordinaire, began his in-depth investigation, complete with 50's private dick disguise.

Unfortunately, the costume was the closest he got to the job that made Dick Tracy famous, as demonstrated by the first place he decided to investigate.

"All right, tell me about the Zap Pack!" Rob blustered.

"Cookie?" The kindergartner asked, offering Rob an arrowroot cookie.

"You piece of trash! Tell me who you're working for!" Rob snapped, before he realized he was getting FAR too into the persona.

Too late for that realization.

"WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The kindergartner cried, and Rob, quickly realizing he'd put his foot in it, recognized that he needed to fix the problem…and so he stood up, put his hands in his pockets, and walked away whistling.

Unfortunately for Rob, this was not a world where a nearly grown man could wear a trench coat and harass kindergarteners without consequence. Especially when trespassing on school grounds.

"WAUGH!" Rob yelped as he was quite literally thrown out of the school by a pair of bulky janitors.

"Yeah, well, um…the drinks sucked anyway!" Rob blurted out. "Heh heh, got 'em good…sigh. No I didn't. Well, at least I'm not on some kind of sex offender list."

* * *

"Hey, did you recognize that guy?" The first janitor said as he headed back into the school. 

"I didn't get a good look at his face. He did say something about 'not treating a superhero this way'." The other janitor replied.

"Trenchcoat…fedora…superhero…that must have been the Question!"

"I'll go make the call to the police."

* * *

While he had no idea how troublesome he had just made the life of Vic Sage, Rob was coming to a realization of his own, as he looked at the name of the building. 

"Oh…wait. Wrong school. This is East Creek Kindergarten. As opposed to East Creek Elementary School, which is where I have to go…which should not be confused with East Creek High School, East Creek Chiropractics, East Creek Bike Shop and XXX Book Store, and East Creek Café…man the people around here are uncreative." Rob said, as he headed over to the elementary school, pausing in the play area to sit down on a swing at the swing set and take a drink of water.

"Okay, whatever I do, I can't go that deep into the persona again." Rob said. "Maybe I should…"

Rob trailed off as a little girl ran up to the swing next to Rob, got on it, and actually started swinging. Rob looked at her for a moment, then reached out a hand and gently stopped her.

"Say doll, you know anything 'bout the Zap Pack?" Rob asked.

"Huh?" The little girl predictably replied.

"Don't play coy with me. What do you want? Money?" Rob asked, having the memory span of a goldfish when it came to certain things.

"I'm not sapposed ta talk to strangers." The little girl sensibly replied.

"Fine. Have a cigarette. After you've smoked with a man, you ain't strangers no more." Rob said, and before the little girl could reply he propped a cancer stick in her mouth, put one in his own, and lit his.

As you might have guessed, this did not end well, as the never-smoked-before teenager had a quite-expected prolonged coughing fit.

"…….on second thought, run along and play little girl." Rob said. The girl understandably ran off, leaving her unlit cigarette on the ground as Rob leaned back…and still in the gimmick, once again inhaled on his own cigarette. "No place for her in my world…as I think I'm getting the black lung GACK!" Rob went as he began coughing and retching even harder. "WHAT THE HELL IS THE APPEAL OF THESE THINGS?!" Rob coughed, and hurled the cigarette away.

He did not expect another young boy to head over…pick up the dropped cigarette of the girl…and light it for himself.

Rob stared, and began to wonder if critics of tobacco companies' advertising tactics were on to something.

"I hear you's askin' 'bout the Zap Pack." The boy said in a perfect 20's gangster tone. For a moment, Rob was tempted to look around to see if Control Freak was lurking about, having put Rob into another warped reality inspired by a midnight marathon of the Godfather films.

But no, this strange sight seemed to be legit. Perhaps truth _was_ stranger then fiction.

"Who wants to know?" Rob replied.

"My Dad's Joe Lombardi." The kid replied.

"THE Joe Lombardi?" Rob replied incredulously.

"You have no idea who Joe Lombardi is, do you."

"None at all."

"He's a gangster. Owns half the town. You wanna know something, I know it."

"How much?" Rob queried.

"Ten bucks."

"Okay, fine." Rob said, producing a bill and handing it over. "Now what do you know?"

"That you're real gullible. Nobody knows nothin' 'bout the Zap Pack."

"…so since that's a double negative, everybody knows everything about them?"

"Shut up." The kid snapped. Rob frowned as he realized he was getting nowhere, and decided to act, in the way of grabbing the kid by the collar.

"You know who I am? If you do you know you're asking for a broken face, kid!"

But the kid just snapped his fingers…as two huge thugs came out of nowhere and grabbed Rob.

"You'll live to regret this!" Rob yelled as he was dragged off.

"Ah shut up." The kid replied, as he disappeared from Rob's sight. A few moments later, Rob found himself getting thrown out of his second school in five minutes, this time by the gangsters.

"I believe I had a hat!" He called after them.

Rob's fedora hit his face so hard it practically merged with it. It took the teen a full minute to pull the headgear off his features.

"Well that…wait a minute. What am I, dense? Retarded or something? I'm the goshdarned Gauntlet! With my superpowers I could have easily prevented that!"

A large car drove by, driving through a muddy puddle whose displaced contents quickly found a new home all over Rob.

"…and that." Rob said, as he stood there dripping. "No wonder all private dicks are alcoholics."

* * *

Not only were Rob's detective skills being called into severe question, but he may very well have been at the wrong school AGAIN, as he didn't see hide nor hair of the Zap Pack in their civilian identities. Then again, maybe he just missed them as they headed back over to Titan Island for more training (crime had been pretty much nonexistent since the Overload attack, quite possibly due to the early efforts of the young children). 

"All right. New lesson today." Robin said as he stood on another rocky portion of the island, even as in the distance rocks of various sizes, from the size of a basketball to the size of buildings, began rising up in the distance over the water. "You've demonstrated high speed and incredible endurance, but those can sometimes be a weakness as well. If you're fighting a villain who can move fast himself, he or she might run. If you're in a wide-open area, fine, but if you're in a densely packed place like a city, you have to be careful when giving chase. Many things, you find, will not be as tough as you if you accidentally crash into them."

"Can't we just blast them?" Blast suggested.

"Not always an option Blast. Plus, it's always good to have various choices at hand. So today you'll learn to try and move fast without crashing into people. Terra's out there making you an obstacle course: the goal is to go through without hitting anything. Beast Boy's going to go with you at first to practice, and then Starfire will take over when you try and tackle it seriously. However, since this involves flying and I am the only Titan member here that is permanently grounded, I am afraid I will have to go off and see to other tasks again."

"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww." The kids all groaned: they were eerily good at speaking or making noises perfectly in sync, Robin noted.

"Relax, this won't always be the case. But it is for today again. You have this in hand Beast Boy?"

"More or less." Beast Boy said in the form of a seal, and then reared up and did a classic seal bark and clap, as the kids cheered. Robin stared, wondering if there was some joke here he wasn't getting, but before Robin could clarify just why he was in that form, the changeling returned to his human guise. Robin gestured to Starfire, who was up in the sky, and she grinned and flashed him a peace sign. He winked and returned the gesture with a thumbs up.

"Who wants to go first?" Beast Boy asked as Robin headed off again.

"Me! Me! Beast Boy! Turn into a Pegasus!" Blaze squealed.

"Uh…well yes that can fly but I'm really not sure…" Beast Boy said as he looked at the shifting mass of rocks Terra had floated up into the sky (a task so draining Terra had actually had to sit down and fully concentrate on doing it: she was certainly multi-tasking here, training the Zap Pack even as she trained herself), contemplating the difficulty of avoiding them as a winged horse rather then say, an eagle.

"Pleasepleasepleaseplease!"

"…Ah sure, anything for my fans!" Beast Boy said and turned into a Pegasus.

Blaze promptly jumped on his back.

"Hey hey now, this is a training exercise, not a guided tour. Besides, can't you fly yourself?" Beast Boy asked.

"I know! I just want to go up on your back!"

"…because?"

"Cause I always wanted to!"

"…of course. What better reason is there?" Beast Boy said, as he carefully flapped his wings (mystical beasts could always be a bit tricky when they mixed and matched parts) in a way that wouldn't bash Blaze, and then took off as she cheered, while Blast made gagging noises and Bolt looked a touch exasperated himself. "But this is JUST to get UP to the course…"

Blaze listened as it turned out, as she got off Beast Boy's back and flew through the course slowly, as Beast Boy tried to both give advice and not crash into any of the rocks himself due to his somewhat unwieldy form. After she'd gone through it, Beast Boy flew back and took Bolt, who did not mind when Beast Boy turned into a far more maneuverable hawk. Blast went last, and then the three did a few repeat trips as they tried to familiarize themselves with the task at hand. After about 70 minutes, the three declared they were ready for a serious try, and Beast Boy flew down to be with Terra and make sure she wasn't pushing herself too hard, as Starfire took over. She spoke briefly on her own flying training, trying to get the general points across without confusing the children with complicated information like wind angles: the children seemed to understand it overall. With that done, the speed run training began in earnest.

It did not go well: the Zap Pack were far too used to their invulnerability talents, and each one repeatedly crashed against and through rocks that Starfire seemed to dodge effortlessly. Despite her pep talks, the young children's frustration was evident, especially Blast, who had to be discouraged from shooting the rocks more then once.

"Do not be upset! This is just the beginning!" Starfire tried to encourage after 30 more minutes of relatively bad runs.

"But you make it look easy!" Blaze complained.

"Oh, well, I was personally trained by my planet's best fliers for 14 hours a day for eight months, and then my life experience granted me a lot more practice in the art of flying. It is simply a matter of learning…"

"It's tooo HARRRRRDDDD…" Blast whined.

"Now stop that." Starfire said as the good nature abruptly vanished from her face, leaving her serious and solemn. "This is not something you can just stop doing because you don't master it immediately! No one learns how to be an expert in one training session! And your powers are so great that you need to learn them well, even if it takes a long time! So no quitting because you haven't succeeded yet! All that will do is ensure you never succeed, and I will not accept that!"

Silence, as the Zap Pack stared, unable to believe the eternally happy alien could do drill sergeant so well.

At least until she broke out into a smile again.

"Besides, effort brings hunger, and I do wish to feed you some florkweed before you must go home!"

"But Miss Starfire, they just appear so quickly…" Blaze said.

"Come now, I said to avoid this thinking process young one. You just need to learn to train your eyes. Watch, even I can't do it backwards…" Starfire said, and preceded to fly backwards into the course, which resulted in her smacking (not too hard) into one of Terra's larger rocks within five seconds.

"There now, you try!" Starfire said in a somewhat slurred tone as she flew back. "Ohhhhhh, does anyone else see those pretty Holorp birds?"

* * *

While Robin probably should have been alarmed that Starfire was adding to her concussion tally in an effort to keep the Zap Pack happy, in reality he didn't even notice: he was once again lost in his Holmesian sleuthing. 

And feeling pretty damn stupid in it: surely Holmes would have put the pieces together, solved the case, arrested the perpetrators, and made it back home in time to play his violin or indulge in some cocaine, depending on which version of Holmes was being favored by the writer. But Robin's constant examinations kept coming up blank. When he had a decent motive, he found means or opportunity lacking, and if he found means, then motive was the question. And on top of that, these examinations were based on a pillar of assumptions that might not even have been true to begin with, which meant Robin might very well be building his castle in a swamp, as a fan of a certain British comedy group and their medieval themed movie might say.

But Robin knew the importance of gut feelings. Many people could claim all sorts of factors that lessoned their usefulness, but there was a difference between limited use and uselessness. And somehow, Robin was certain that all these kidnappings were connected.

But the exact reason remained frustratingly elusive. Robin had spent his last several examinations (he was really neglecting his studies on the mysterious 'sky metal' that gave the Zap Pack their powers, but he was sure Clayton would understand why) studying port records to see if he could puzzle out a pattern that might lead to tangible evidence of the slavery possibility, sex or otherwise. But nothing had jumped out at him, and in the end Robin put that prospect on the back burner. In reality, he was kind of glad that the idea they'd been kidnapped for reasons unfathomable to most people wasn't bearing fruit, because if that was the case, chances are the parents would never see their children again: they'd have long vanished into the cracks of third world countries, subjected to things you would think demons from hell would be incapable…

Robin tossed that bitter train of thought away. It wouldn't help anyone.

Of other tangible options, Robin had sent a letter to Jason Blood to enquire if he knew of any kind of child snatching force that might be operating near Jump, or might have operated in the past. Robin was still waiting to hear back on that (the problem with being so in touch with the supernatural and dark forces beyond the world was that one didn't have much use for many things in the world, like an e-mail account). He'd also sent the data off to Batman and Oracle to see if they would have any ideas, but both Bruce and Babs were occupied at the moment with their own cases. Besides them, all Robin had was the several groups of investigating policemen he was working with to try and solve this, and they'd had no luck either. And unlike him, they didn't have lots of free time to devote to examination (superhuman crime fighting was a lot like war: days of boredom followed by minutes of terror). For all intents and purposes, Robin was 'on his own'.

But that was okay. He'd figure something out.

If he wanted any peace of mind.

And Robin liked his peace of mind.

He took a drink from a nearby water bottle and then stepped back and examined the big picture again. His idea to look at port records came from his thought that these children weren't being shipped off in ones and twos, but were actually being gathered into larger groups. In such a size, the only real way to sneak them out of the country would be on a ship: airports were far too secure. And Robin doubted that anyone who would go to so much trouble to grab so many kids would do something as risky as throw them all into a truck and try to drive them down into Mexico or South America, even if the only thing keeping them from doing that was a sociopathic desire to 'protect the goods'…

…wait.

…what if they WEREN'T being taken somewhere? What if they were being all kept in the States?

The question of 'why' quickly rose up, but Robin pushed it aside: if he got tangled in that again he'd resume going in circles. He had to, for the moment, assume that not only were all the kids kidnapped by the same organization, but that all of them were still being held in a group.

Because that kind of task requires certain variables.

And Robin had a good idea on how to use those variables. The many studies of serial killers had often brought up that such men (and the occasional woman) tended to have 'safety zones', areas where they felt the most comfortable doing their 'hunting'. This had often helped narrow down search locations, which had helped lead to arrests.

Utilizing that geographic profiling might help Robin narrow down something else: just where you could conceivably keep an ever-increasing group of kids without anyone noticing you. Of course, this was assuming the kidnapper(s) would want them for some reason so that he or they would feed the kids as well as see to other matters…but Robin couldn't get on that track again.

He had data to crunch.

And crunch he did, as Robin began rapidly typing, gathering the pieces of info (timeline of the kidnappings, location, witness and evidence reports, and so on) and trying to put it together in some kind of understandable way. A lot of people would have looked at the sheer amount of information and possibilities present and been completely overwhelmed.

But they didn't call Robin the Teen Wonder for nothing, as he continued his furious pace, the light of the computer screen flickering over his face…

* * *

…even as the light of a small flashlight played over the face of Rob Candide as he stood, said flashlight clenched firmly in his jaw as he carefully looked through the file cabinet in the dark room he was inhabiting. 

After his two unpleasant experiences, Rob had decided a change in tactics was in order. Talking to the kids was getting nowhere, and since Rob had a feeling talking to the adults would result in more unpleasant exits and possibly calls to the police, so he decided to do the next best thing: take a look at the Zap Pack's report cards, permanent records, or whatever they were keeping on children these days (in Rob's case, it had been a permanent record. His elementary school vice principal had once claimed that said permanent record took up a whole filing cabinet. Rob had proceeded to go on a crime spree in the interests of getting two. Fortunately for everyone involved, he had been told this only a month before he was due to move up to junior high. Rob had personally always seen his failure to get the second filing cabinet as the REAL black mark on his record).  
Originally Rob was planning to get into the room by seducing the secretary, but after a quick observation showed she was at least seventy and had more hair in her ears then on her head (there were definitely better wigs), Rob decided on Plan B: pull the fire alarm.

Unfortunately, Elm Creek's vice principal was suffering a rather nasty hangover after a rather raucous party, and so in flagrant violation of state and federal fire safety laws, he had disconnected every last fire alarm. Rob was rewarded for ten minutes of running around the school pulling the alarms not with ringing klaxons, but with muted 'thunks'.

Rob then decided on Plan C: go in and ask politely.

He was told no. Sorry, not EVERY attempt can have some comical result.

After that, Rob decided on Plan D: wait until nightfall and then sneak into the school and then the room in turn. In Rob's opinion, it wasn't technically breaking and entering because he didn't break anything (Noel wasn't the only one who could use his talent as a makeshift key, thank you very much) on the way in. And so here he was, pouring through the files.

The only reason he wasn't complaining vocally was because that would result in him dropping the flashlight, but trust me when I say Rob found this boring as hell. Not to mention annoying as hell that he couldn't complain vocally. So he improvised and did it mentally.

_Stupid gravity. Damn you Newton! Nah, if it weren't for him, I'd be cursing the nature of the Earth element to draw things made of earth, like this flashlight, towards it. Speaking of which, this flashlight tastes filthy. When was the last time I washed it? It almost tastes like…zorkaberries? What was Star DOING with it? Man, I miss Star. I know she's Robin's girl, but I never get sick of being around her. I swear, they ever even show a sign of breaking up, I'm all over that. I wonder if she lays eggs…man, THAT was a random thought. What I know about Tamaranean biology could be written on a matchbook. Speaking of matches, maybe I could just light one of these reports on fire. It's not like these kids will miss another achievement award or whatnot…if I could make a makeshift torch, I could talk. And then I could complain. DAMN, this is boring…_

And as if on cue, as soon as that thought crossed Rob's synapses he finally found what he was looking for, in the form of a file that named Thomas Pickard, aka Bolt, as its subject.

"Jackpot! Now, what horrid secrets does this hold?" Rob crowed as he flipped it open.

Only to find it held nothing. It looked like any file a normal kid might have.

"…unless being bland is a crime, I got nothin'. Stupid kid." Rob said, and tossed it down as he resumed searching.

He found Tawny Rodkey's, aka Blaze, file next, but nothing jumped out from that either. Realizing he may have accidentally skipped over Blast's name, as his last name was Bonaparte, Rob went back and searched again, and found that indeed, he'd skipped over it.

It may as well have stayed skipped: it provided the exact same nothing the other two files had.

"You have to be kidding me." Rob said as he picked up the other two. "More blandness? What are these kids, the Leave It To Beavers? I mean, B average grades, the same number of excused absences, on different days yes but still, the…huh." Rob said as he looked over the files and did some mental math. "Their grade point averages are exactly the same. As are their heights and weights…it's like they're identical, except for their faces and hair and stuff…"

Rob adjusted the flashlight and read on.

"They have the same number of achievement awards from their old schools…looks like they all transferred in earlier this year. The exact same number…the same sort of comments on old report cards…the handwriting on each report card is exactly the same…in every…grade….oh geez if the teacher's names are the same…no wait they're not, let's see…Smith…Jones…Johnson…" Rob trailed off. "………..It's like somebody assembled all of the ingredients for perfect little kids, then scaled them back to avoid suspicion…and then they got powers."

The epiphany struck.

"They're obviously a secret government project to clone B students, who were then exposed to Chemical X!…huh, Legend Maker didn't do a very good job of doing a Power Puff Pastiche."

_**What?**_

"You heard me. It's so obvious. You could have at least done less then three."

**_Uh Rob…_**

"And what's the deal with Robin kicking me off the team? It's like this whole search is a plot device to better reveal whatever the 'big secret' is!"

**CRASH!**

"Hey! What the hell's going on? Who's in there?" Came a loud, angry-sounding male voice as the forth wall broke once again and for once had consequences.

"Gasp! Guards! Oh no, this is bad! Oh, if only I had an ancient weapon of untold mystical power! Oh wait…"

_**Yes yes, GET ON WITH IT.**_

And so Gauntlet…made a rope via the energy of his namesake artifact and climbed out the window to the ground.

**_That's IT?_**

"I don't take kindly to back seat adventuring."

_**Okay, fine, I'm done John Byrning.**_

"Good, 'cause I'm sure as hell not getting in that purple get up She-Hulks prefers." Rob said. "Damn, left the files in the room, and besides, that's strange but it could just be coincidence. What else could I uncover…" Rob said as he stroked his chin…

* * *

A pose mirrored by Robin, though he wasn't stroking his chin, just holding it as he watched data compile on his screen. After a great deal of effort putting all the information together properly, he was finally able to give his fingers a rest and let the computer take over some of the hard work as it crunched and analyzed, seeing if it could produce any kind of fruit in narrowing down certain areas. What Robin hoped to get was a pattern of where the kids were taken possibly linking up to where they could conceivably be held. If he could even get the slightest inkling of something from that, Robin might be able to use it to narrow down or even pinpoint a location where all the kids were currently being held in Jump. The last numbers in the kidnapping had occurred in his city, so it made sense that the group would currently be held here. 

Provided there was a group, and provided Robin wasn't barking up the wrong tree.

A sudden thought occurred to him: his current attempts to enlist help hadn't worked, but those had just been with people he directly knew in some fashion. Maybe he should try and contact someone he only knew by name or reputation.

A name came to mind, as Robin called up the communicating program of the computer, even as he rolled over to the file cabinet again and removed a small notebook. Typing in the codes the book had (utilizing the special method Robin had memorized so no one could steal the codes if the book fell into the wrong hands), Robin sent off the message.

A minute later, a blonde girl with a blue-face mask popped up on the screen.

"JSA Headquarters…ROBIN. Hey, what's happening?" Stargirl said, greatly surprised who was calling and that it was actually someone close to her age.

"Hey Courtney. Oh the usual. Monsters. Madmen. Power…problems." Robin said. "I actually need to talk to one of your teammates."

A few minutes later, Robin found himself conversing with Sand, aka Sandy Hawkins, once the child partner of the World War II mysteryman The Sandman, one of the greatest detectives who had ever lived (Batman had taken more then a few lessons from him). Due to a villain's science, Sandy had been transformed into a creature of silicon and put in suspended animation back in the mid-century until his mentor could find a cure. He did, eventually, but it took several decades, hence leaving Sandy in his mid-20's in the 21st century, while his mentor had died recently in his 90's. While Robin wasn't expecting any miracles out of this conversation, he knew very well the reputation of Wesley Dodds, and was sure Sand had picked up more then a few things if only by osmosis.

In any case, Robin related the facts of the case to Sand, who took off his gas mask facial protection while he listened.

"Definitely strange. What have you theorized so far?"

Robin told him.

"That's pretty much what I'd theorize. Damn, this is strange."

"Tell me about it." Robin said.

"You want me to bring it up with Holt?" Sand asked, referring to his genius teammate known as Mr. Terrific.

"If you can manage it, I can use all the help I could get."

"Keep at it Robin. In the end that's the only definite you have when you need to solve the case." Sand said.

"Did that fact annoy you as much as a kid when your mentor told you it as it does me?"

"You have no idea." Sand replied. "But Wesley was right. He tended to be."

"I don't doubt it."

"And actually, seeing you reminds me of some weird things I've heard through the grapevipe." Sand said. Robin rolled his eyes.

"Those two caught in the mall were just VERY dedicated cosplayers…"

"No not that. The thing about three kids popping up that all have Superman powers and fighting all the crime for you."

"Oh, that. Well…yes, that's mostly true."

"And you're training them?"

"Yes?"

"…aren't you concerned?"

"Oh god, have you been talking to Gauntlet?"

"No, really though, if that is the case Robin, it strikes me as very strange."

"Our very existence is almost forever in a state of 'very strange'."

"True, but Robin, if those kids are so powerful, should you really be teaching them anything beyond basic superhero skills? Doesn't the fact that you know more then them constitute your only advantage? If you teach them all you know…"

"The Anakin Factor." Robin replied.

"What?"

"The best way to describe it is to invoke the character of Anakin Skywalker. You've seen the _Star Wars_ prequels I assume."

"Oh yes, you mean the films that turned Darth Vader from black terror to whiny douche?"

Robin rolled his eyes.

"Yes, those films…and I'd just like to point out, yes, the kind of person Anakin was and how Darth Vader in the first trilogy was so different is a point of contention, but you have to remember that nearly twenty years have passed between the third and forth chapters. That's more then enough time for Anakin's 'emo' nature to slowly become the figure of menace Darth Vader was. Two decades in such a hellish half-existence as that suit probably was? Suddenly the difference doesn't seem so sudden. But that's beside the point." Robin said. "I'm referring to how when Anakin was discovered, a lot of things went wrong with his training. He was 'too old', he was a slave, he had to be separated from his mother, and he was then raised in the rather cold and sterile atmosphere the Jedi Academy seemed to be. I feel that was a big factor in his descent. But what was the alternative? Leave him on Tatooine? Leave him as a slave with such burgeoning powers? How do you know that wouldn't have resulted in a worse fate, as hard as that is to believe, considering what happened in the end? In the end, I feel a third route is needed. What if they'd brought Anakin's mother with them? What if Qui-Gon Jinn, who had a far better understanding of the Force than most realized, had not died in battle and trained Anakin as he planned to? What if they'd raised him RIGHT? Well, that's another story, and who knows how it will end, but I think it would have ended better then the other two options. So that's why I'm doing this. I believe it's better then the alternatives, and the alternatives, well, their likelihood's fall under the Anakin Factor. What ended up happening…and the damage it did. Maybe in that piece of fiction, but not in my world, under my watch."

"…well, I guess that's as good a reason as any. I'll give your case some thought and discussion when I can. Be in contact later. Sand out." Sand said, and ended the conversation.

Robin nodded to the screen. Well, he'd tried. Nothing exposed the 'grasping at straws' framework that underplated a lot of detective work when the detectives didn't have anything resembling a solid clue…

…well, maybe Robin was being too quick to think that, as his mind returned to something it had noticed from putting his information together.

Witness reports were scattershot on the nature of the kidnappings: a fair chunk of them had just vanished when the parents weren't looking, seemingly disappearing into thin air, or more likely in whatever direction the parents didn't manage to look at the time. But in three other cases, Rob found reports that mirrored the strange two he had gotten when the set of three kidnappings had occurred during the Overload battle: that the parents or guardians knew where the kids had been taken, but were unable to stop them, because whatever was taking them was not invisible, yet the parents could not see it or effectively pursue it, unable to do anything including a small thing like note the color or type of vehicle used to carry the kids away. Like the moment their kids were snatched, they'd suddenly become falling down drunk, or someone started playing havoc on their inner ear, or something…

It really wasn't as useful as it might seem to an outsider: witness reports were among the most unreliable sources of evidence there was. Despite what television and movies liked to present, a crime having a witness offered no guarantees: humans were humans and hence forgot things, subconsciously added things, only focused on certain things (there was a known visual phenomenon in which a witness being threatened by a weapon such as a gun would suffer a tunneling of vision where they would be able to see the gun in stark clarity but absorb virtually no details of the attacker's face, their fear focusing their sight on the object that would harm them rather then the one who would actually do the harm), let their prejudices affect their memories, and other problems. Even if the witness had a good recall and no agenda, all it took was a good (or sleazy, and sometimes it was hard to tell if the two hadn't forever intertwined) lawyer to riddle the account with holes and twist it to their advantage. Yes, when it came to evidence, forensics, documented, and electronic types were often preferred over eyewitness reports (not that those were foolproof either: another victim of popular entertainment. Not even accounting that most CSI labs would not have the vahillion-dollar setup Jerry Bruckheimer's groups had, one simply could not find a fingernail clipping and instantly have an omniscient overview of the criminal who had committed the crime, no matter WHAT kind of equipment, training, or experience one possessed. Robin was all for entertainment and suspending disbelief, but the problem was most people didn't know the belief had to be suspended and took whatever was said at face value, and a distorted viewpoint on anything could rarely be said to be good…but those kind of thoughts were for another time, or if Robin ever decided to start up a blog, though he doubted that would happen: he already regretted the hassle, not to mention the widescale joke-thievery, that had resulted from his email account), but in this case, eyewitness reports were all they had: forensics had turned up nothing…

…and that was damn weird, come to think of it.

If the legacy of certain shows had taught the Western world anything, it was that it was pretty much impossible to commit a crime without leaving SOME kind of trace behind. Denoting the fact that the ability to detect, speed of processing, and information one could glean (and how well it could be used to prosecute) from such information had been rather distorted by entertainment, forensic science had advanced to the point where even attempting to cover your tracks would work against you: you might destroy one kind of evidence but the destructive efforts could be detected as another kind and traced back to you. A real damned if you do, damned if you don't situation (which Robin wished was more consistent with popular culture, actually): it might be better to commit a crime and rely on the luck that you wouldn't be cast in the net of the investigation, or the more unlikely event that no investigation would occur, the crime mistaken for a more benign tragedy. And since forensics had mostly evolved around catching multiple-crime UnSub's, such a mindset was pretty much idiocy.

And this was clearly a multiple-crime situation. One might be lucky enough to get away with one or two such kidnappings without leaving behind anything that could be discovered or traced well, but DOZENS? Impossible. Even by the standards of probability superheroes tended to work under ("Hey Wondrous Man, I thought you were dead." "I got better."), Robin would firmly stick that under the unachievable banner.

And yet…there was nothing. No fingerprints, no hair follicles, no tire tracks, no overlooked detail like a cigarette smudged with lipstick or a trace of sand tracked in from a certain beach, nothing. And Robin doubted one could completely blow DOZENS of investigations and miss evidence in ALL of them. And yet…nothing.

And THAT, in itself, was evidence, and useful evidence at that. One that gave Robin another inkling, as he began typing again. As mentioned, electronic evidence was also a preferred type: videotape, audiotape, and computer recorders couldn't forget or revise details (on their own anyway). Robin quickly picked out the case files that would have some kind of electronic evidence and began combing through whatever was gathered (or in a few cases, electronically hacking into records of various establishments to get what Robin himself needed).

It helped fill in a picture Robin was somehow beginning to dislike even more. Even though the evidence gathered in that was nothing.

NOTHING! Even discounting some of the cases where the people had been out of view of camera range or whatnot, there had to have been at least ten cases where SOMETHING on the kidnapping should have been caught on tape (Robin had a brief flash of the chilling picture of young murder victim James Bulger, taken from a shopping mall security video while being led by to be murdered, not by a man or a woman, but by two ten year old boys…but he forced it down. No sense dwelling on the impossible questions of human evil, he was doing it too much to begin with). And in those cases…

Nothing.

But not because the videotapes were normal.

Because they weren't there at all.

Robin went into the case files and examined the notes of the detectives who had noticed these problems themselves, on the various reasons the cameras hadn't been working. Some had been broken for some time, and one was found to have been defective, but the rest had just…stopped working, at various times of the day.

All, too conveniently, before the abductions.

What really put the nail in the certainty that this was unnatural was when Robin called up records of video recordings at street intersections near the malls (where available) that were designed to catch speeders to see if he could see any similar vehicles fleeing the scene. Of the options he found, he got three good possibilities of them having recorded such data.

And their recordings were all a scrambled mess in the resulting time frame.

No wonder there weren't any forensics. Whoever, or whatever was doing this, not only knew what it was doing, but clearly had access to the technology to completely eradicate any trace of their presence.

And, so it seemed, as Robin recalled the eyewitness report, any ability for ANYTHING to recall said presence, including people.

Robin's mind turned back to that, as he briefly checked his geographic profiling process (still far too vague to offer any possibilities), and then devoted his brain to it. The eyewitness reports that whatever had taken their kids had been by something 'not visible but yet 'unseeable''.

Cloaking technology, or 'active camouflage', tended to work on two combined aspects: the 'bending light' principle and the 'projection' principle. People saw by the reflection of light particles off objects entering and being processed by their eyes, so stealth technology began by taking those light waves and altering them, hence keeping the light from properly reflecting and hence being interpreted by human vision. They then combined this distortion by taking in the surrounding area via cameras and projecting the image onto the wearer, hence in theory making it look like they were see through ala a pane of glass. This was far from perfect though: technology had a hit or miss record with creating it (usually the wearer could not be rendered completely invisible, which resulted in a 'shimmer effect' that allowed people to see a faint trace of the hidden person or object), and metahumans who had the innate ability to turn invisible had their own set of problems (such as learning to turn the proper maximum amount of their own eyes invisible so that they couldn't be seen, while still leaving enough to actually SEE: cloaker's eyes tended to mutate to make this easier, but if a cloaker turned themselves COMPLETELY invisible, he or she often proceeded to go completely blind, as the light waves had nothing to interact with to process data).

But Robin was only noting that fact in regard to the fact that this hiding effect was not that method. Indeed, instead of rendering the taker (s?) invisible to the eye, it…rendered people unable to see them?

Robin recalled the eyewitness testimony, how the few who had some idea their kids were being taken before it was too late had found themselves unable to rescue or even pursue, because…they couldn't?

The man who had gotten the closest to recovering their kid, one Alfred Peter Hall, had not only been unable to see his son's taker, but when he'd gotten close to where he claimed his son had been, he'd suddenly become overwhelmed by a sense of vertiginousness so extreme he literally had no idea which way was up, let along where his kid was being taken. That sensation matched a few things in the notes of earlier kidnappings…

Instead of hiding, and in lieu of the scrambled electronic records, it seemed like in several cases the kidnapper had covered their tracks with some kind of distorting technology that worked on both human and electronic perception…backed with other technology that caught or eliminated any type of forensic evidence?

You couldn't buy that kind of stuff in a pawnshop, or build it with kick-knacks from the average hardware store. But while that narrowed it down, it still didn't answer just who…

And Robin didn't get a chance to figure it out after that, as the alarm abruptly sounded, and Robin jerked up in the chair.

"Well, I guess there is no rest for the wicked. Or the weary." Robin said, as he turned and looked at the outside monitor to see if his team had heard the alarm and if the Zap Pack was still there (damn, it was nearly 7 PM, he'd started this at 10:30 AM, where did the time go…). The kids were STILL there, and they'd clearly heard the alarm. Darn it, Robin didn't need to run into the city only to have the Zap Pack, er, zap off and deal with the problem before they were even halfway there…

But they weren't. Robin blinked. Maybe they WERE learning.

Well, in that case, there was trouble, and they'd been called.

* * *

Trouble was a highly flexible term, though. 

"Ha ha ha!" Cody Grant cackled as he held his hostage, a middle-aged supermarket clerk, tightly with one arm around her neck, a cheap nickel revolver in his other hand pressed firmly on the side of her head. He was a somewhat tall and toned young man (a swimmer's body, one might have called it), with a worn baseball cap jammed over his stringy blonde hair. His face was narrow and poorly shaven, and his clothing consisted of the usual 'gangster' attire thugs liked to wear: baggy jeans and a t-shirt that looked 10 sizes too big for the wearer (the shirt and pants were both white, though no one would mistake this guy for a certain 'decommissioned' Titan).

Cody had the usual problems of a lot of disaffected youth: he was an idiot who thought he was brilliant and a slacker who thought effort was for losers, he'd use his brains to score quickly and big, and if anything went wrong, it was someone else's fault. And after a fairly successful score (which one should note was due to a crime that happened outside of Jump City and was due to more luck then anything), Cody was ready to take the next big step (without having a clue on where he was going). He wasn't robbing the supermarket, no, this was just to get attention. Sure, the cops had shown up, but Cody didn't want them. He'd told one of the idiots running away who he wanted.

And sure enough, within ten minutes they showed up.

"Well well well, the TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN Titans!" Cody cackled as the four superheroes entered the supermarket. Robin took one look at Cody's eyes and accurately deduced he was high on cocaine. That was good and also bad, the bad part primarily for his hostage, who had that look of pleading hope to save her that Robin hated. They were more then the average person, but they weren't gods, and when their numbers didn't come up…

Cody was completely unaware of Robin's analysis, as he was pretty much having a mental orgasm that it was time. His fellows on the job had gone to blow all their money on drugs and whores, but Cody has only used a little of it on that. The rest he'd given to Doctor Chang while meeting the brilliant scientist in a back alleyway. In return, Chang had put Cody through a scientific treatment that had given Cody superpowers. Chang had not told Cody what the powers would be, saying that due to something about people's janatic structures or whatever there was no real way to tell, but he promised Cody that the world would be 'amazed'.

Now, the area of thought after such a treatment would be that after receiving such abilities, the newly-empowered person would test them, perhaps train oneself in them. But as mentioned before, Cody Grant was an idiot who'd grabbed up his gun, snorted a few lines for bravery, and then gone off to lure the Titans to him.

"Yeah, it's us. What do you want?" Robin said. He was vaguely aware that the Zap Pack had arrived behind him with his teammates: they'd brought the Titans with them and listened when Robin told them to dial it back, but Robin had no idea how long their patience would last. He kind of wished he hadn't brought them in at all, but he figured the alternative (telling them to stay outside and them getting a 'new idea' to help and barging in when Robin least expected it) was probably riskier.

Cody cackled again, but Robin's face betrayed not an iota of the tension that noise produced.

"Well, you see, with the grapevine saying Slade's outta the picture, and with those BRATS behind you stomping on everything that's left, I figure the field's wide open for a new guy. ME! And I'm gonna start by trashing all o' you!" Cody declared.

And he hurled the supermarket clerk aside with a surprised cry, and Robin started to go for a Birdarang, expecting the gun to be aimed for him…

And then Cody threw the gun aside as well, an action that surprised Robin, and that second of Robin being taken aback allowed Cody to raise his arms.

"I am AMAZING MAN! YOUR DOOM! DIE! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Cody laughed, and activated his powers. What would it be? Disintegrating fields? Time manipulation? A hypnotic ability that would turn the Titans into his slaves?

A soft white froth bubbled up from Cody's palms.

No, it was the ability to make soap bubbles.

Cody Grant was far too stupid to realize the word 'amazed' could be applied in more then one way. And that Chang hated idiots and took advantage of them whenever possible.

His namesake was apt though: it was hard to tell who looked more amazed. The Titans, or him.

Robin arched an eyebrow, as even Cody's brain realized that he'd been ripped off and his powers were a complete dud.

"…WHAT?" Cody said, looking at his hands. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?"

Robin winced at the word, but he wasn't that surprised Cody would use foul language in front of children. He had other things on his minds.

"Well, if arrogant delusion was put into a power, I suppose that would be it." Robin said, relaxing even as he shifted into combat mode. "Look on the bright side: at least you can always keep fully clean. Even if it's not Zestfully clean."

"YOU MOTHERFUCKING COCKSUCKER PIECE OF SHIT! YOU FUCKING FUCKED ME OVER YOU FUCKER! FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!" Cody erupted. Robin looked behind him, and saw that not only were the Zap Pack shocked, but now his three teammates were holding their hands over the children's ears (and probably regretting they didn't have access to Gauntlet's air horn).. Well, with no hostage or weapon, he didn't really need them.

"All right Amazing Man, time to go to jail." Robin said, slowly walking forward, having no doubt whatsoever the angry (and still high) would be criminal mastermind would do with his offer.

"FUCCCCCCCK YOU!" Cody screamed, and took a swing at Robin.

And even as he was starting the punch, Robin stepped to the side, Cody's drugged-up body being thrown off balance as he stumbled forward with the blow, as Robin slipped around him even as he reached for his belt and produced his staff, extending it, turning, and giving Cody one quick rap on the back of the head. The criminal went down with a slight whimper, and that was it.

"Sorry Raven, I think I just broke your record for quickest end to a fight. Then again, maybe this shouldn't qualify in the first place." Robin said as he cuffed the would-be criminal and gave the police an all clear. Having nothing better to do, Beast Boy and Terra were checking to see if the hostage was all right: Starfire was standing with the Zap Pack.

"I apologize for you being exposed to the words of cursing. Such excessive use of them tends to demonstrate the lowness of the casual criminal mind, so you should not engage in the act of ingemination when it comes to such scurrilous colloquies." Starfire said as Robin walked up.

"…WHAT?" The Zap Pack said as one.

"Cursing is bad, don't repeat what he said." Robin said. "I know the words have an appeal to them, but there's a time and a place for bad words and you're a bit too young to really understand where. Until then, try not to say them."

"Okay." The Zap Pack said, nodding.

Something occurred to Robin.

"…say, why didn't you just charge in and rescue the hostage? You would probably be fast enough to take the gun away before he could hurt the woman."

"But you told us not to blindly charge in." Blaze said.

"So we didn't." Blast continued.

"We waited to see what you would do, so we wouldn't hurt anyone." Bolt finished.

Robin suddenly felt better. The lessons WERE sinking in. They were starting to learn to be responsible, instead of just children glorifying in their power.

"Good, GOOD. Well done." Robin said, and the Zap Pack grinned. "For that, I'd take you out for pizza…"

"YAY!"

"But I don't know if your parents would approve of that, so we'll have to wait until a time when we do have proper approval."

The Zap Pack groaned.

"Come on Robin…"

"No, no, junk food is like cursing, there's a time for it and it's important to know…" Robin said as he headed out of the supermarket, the Zap Pack pestering him all the way.

* * *

As it turned out, Robin, figuring since they were in the city and had kept the Zap Pack late anyway, took the Zap Pack home personally, and learned that the parents wouldn't have minded if he'd taken them out to eat. They'd invited him and the Titans to stay for dinner again, but Robin had begged off, saying he had other matters to attend to. The rest of the Titans had stayed though. 

Robin had only kept an eye on possible distress signals for the first half hour.

Though once he was back at work, he realized he still didn't have much to work on. The computer was still properly organizing the data to try and see if his geographic profiling could put together anything useful, and Robin had lost his previous track of thought when the alarm had sounded (seemed like Mr. Cody Grant had been able to do SOMETHING to the Titans besides give them a laugh, though Robin doubted 'Amazing Man' could appreciate it). He checked for any new information, but Batman and Oracle were still occupied and the few emails he'd gotten back from detectives didn't help him.

Considering some of his previous lines of thought, Robin began going through the files of the Titans' active/at large villains, seeing if the evidence and his pondering matched up with anything. From there, Robin even went into the files of incarcerated/missing/dead villains of the Titans, and from there to villains with more tentative links such as his mentor's enemies. But nothing matched up well, or only matched if the means and motive supposition was the equivalent of riding a unicycle across a tightrope while juggling greased pigs, and that was pretty much useless to begin with. The only real file that leapt out at Robin was the one of Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter, whose Alice In Wonderland-themed insanity occasionally had paedophillic undertones, but then again, Tetch didn't seem the type to kidnap such a variety of children (unless he was working with someone to help him get them, he'd done it before), and Robin was pretty sure he was currently locked up in Arkham.

Pretty sure.

Like the Joker had been, before it was revealed he'd paid off another prisoner to impersonate him in his cell.

Like Zsasz had been, before it was revealed he'd bribed a contractor to hide an escape tunnel in his cell when the place was undergoing renovation.

Like the Scarecrow had been, and lacking anyone to give money to help him escape, he'd instead used his immensely thin and wiry body to worm through an air duct you wouldn't expect anyone to fit through unless they were Eugene Tooms.

Robin suddenly felt that a call to Arkham might be useful.

But his two efforts were answered with busy signals. Robin hung up the second time certain he was making a mountain out of a molehill: if Tetch had some hand in this, Batman would have surely been down there by then.

Then again, Batman wasn't omnipotent, and of the Titans' enemies those with means lacked motive, and those with motive (as we must remember, some villains had yet to make their presence felt) could be counted on with one hand with most of the fingers left over, and on top of that they lacked means.

" 'But I don't want to go among mad people'." Robin said to himself, rubbing his head, the verse coming to mind with his thoughts on suspects and how he might be missing it completely because of a lack of any real ability to tell how most of his villains thought, and that factor might be keeping him from finding the children. " 'Oh you can't help that, we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad. Off with this sodding head.'" Robin said…and then wondered where the hell that had come from and what he was talking about. It was probably stress.

Enough: he'd let the computer do the work for the moment and think of other things (of ships and shoes and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings-ARGH, Robin was beginning to wish he'd never stumbled over the Tetch possibility). Maybe his analysis of the mystery metal had gotten somewhere.

Robin shouldn't have said anything, as the printed assessment of the few new angles Robin had been able to think of came up as dead ends too. If there was some magic trick the metal had performed to empower the Zap Pack, Robin had yet to find its misdirection ('Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?' 'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to'-ARGH). Maybe it WAS magic: one only had to look at Captain Marvel to see how powerful it could be. Perhaps the metal was just a lure and a red herring, completely normal after whatever power it had contained was gone, the original power coming from a capricious source with the power to bestow that kind of might?

Robin remembered Larry, his No 1 fan, and how Johnny Rancid had seized control of his power briefly. He strongly suspected Larry had come from the same place Superman's foe Mr. Mxyzptlk: their powers (and range of such) were similar (and the amount of power Mr. Mxyzptlk theoretically possessed was terrifying if one thought of it: he could make a whole galaxy of Zap Packs by snapping his fingers, let alone set up a silly prank that made three). The same dimension had also produced the 'Thunderbolt genie' named Yz (who had later merged with another genie named Lkz to form a new entity called Ylzkz) who had served the World War II era hero Johnny Thunder and now worked with the Justice Society under the service of his current master, Jakeem Thunder. Said dimension was also the home as the once benevolent imp Quisp, who had eventually been corrupted and become the immensely dangerous Qwsp (and come to think of it Larry had given his real name as 'Nosyard Cid' or something, Robin wondered if it was really 'Nsyrd Szd' or something to that extent).

Or maybe it was some kind of yet unseen alien science and all this musing on an apparent hatred of vowels was so much kltpzyxm.

Robin sighed. He was all for mystery and wonder in life, but those things rang as hollow as Cody Grant's head if it turned out the Zap Pack's powers were burning them up, or slowly transforming them into living weapons for an alien invasion, or something even worse. Things were just starting to go really good: Robin REALLY didn't want another shoe to drop. He'd had enough of those in his life to turn Paris Hilton green with envy.

He really wished he could speak with Batman, if only to hear a fresh opinion. (Twinkle twinkle little bat, how I wonder-ARGH it was still going). But then again, his training had taught him to rely on others only to the degree where it didn't impede standing on your own: he couldn't go running to his mentor every time the game was too hard.

Robin let out another sigh and massaged his forehead. All right, what ELSE could bestow that kind of power?

(Yellow matter custard, green slop pie, all mixed together with a dead dog's eye…)

On second thought, maybe he should grab a few winks. His brain seemed to be on a one-way trip towards a rabbit hole.

"When the remarkable becomes bizarre, reason turns rancid." Robin mused, as he got up and headed for his room.

But he was going to solve this mystery.

Even if the ending sent him tumbling off his own personal waterfall.


	33. Youth of the Nation: Youth is Wasted

Chapter 35: Youth Is Wasted On The Young

_"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praetor necessitatem."_

-Friar William of Ockham

There were others that might be said to have reason that stood on less then firm ground, but whether that was accurate was really in the eye of the beholder.

Despite what some (okay, Noel) would say, Robert Candide was not stupid. Hell, Savior KNEW Gauntlet wasn't stupid (that wouldn't stop him from making the accusation when Rob made him cross, which was often). But he definitely had his own beat that he marched to, and in this case, the parade had ended up going so far off course that it might as well have been marching on the sea floor by now. If asked to explain his general viewpoint on life, Rob might have said something like 'Life is an adventure. The Great Author puts things before us, things we might not be able to handle. But there are patterns, and those patterns can save you. Life is also a party. But it's a party that's gone on too long and everyone keeps looking at the clock and wonders when it would be polite to leave. I just got here, so I'm happy.'

Er…perhaps if asked on his viewpoints on superhuman life…

"Being a superhero is like being a movie star, an astronaut, a cowboy, and a policeman at the same time. It's every childhood dream simultaneously. In short, it's freakings AWESOME."

But what does that have to do with your ridiculous paranoia?

"Who said anything about my entirely justified paranoia?"

I did, don't forget who's spinning this tale!

"You're not the boss of me! Fine. My paranoia isn't paranoia because they actually are out to get me. They're gatecrashers in the party of life, black hats who are pretending to be white hats in God's great corral, Raisin cookies passing themselves off for Chocolate Chip! They're bad news and I know it in my heart of hearts! It's just proof is proving elusive…"

That would explain your current location.

"That's your job. Now if you'll stop Real Life Comics-ing, get back to the narrative."

And so, a short time in the future later, Gauntlet found himself creeping through a dark, musty cave straight out of a Tomb Raider adventure. Rob even had a flaming torch, though this was not of his choice.

"Stupid torch rental bozos. $5 an hour!? Rassn frassn…stupid flashlight, stupid batteries…" Gauntlet mumbled as he walked through the musty path, festooned as they ever were with ancient cobwebs, strange noises, and lit with a strange illumination that somehow showed much more of the area then Gauntlet's torch realistically should have.

It let Gauntlet see the path was widening a bit…and that the area up ahead was strewn with yellowed bones. Gauntlet didn't need to be Lara Craft to know what that meant.

And so Gauntlet stopped, reached down at his belt, and removed a spray bottle that he spritzed in front of him, looking for a laser mesh. Despite the surroundings, Gauntlet had suspicions of a more modern alarm system.

He found none, and moved forward again a step, spraying some more. Nothing.

Another step, more spraying. No sign of any kind of grid.

"Heh. Maybe for once I actually used the…" Gauntlet said as he started forward.

As the stone block beneath his foot suddenly depressed beneath his weight.

"…I didn't know they actually made those." Gauntlet groused.

Apparently so.

"Who are you, the author from Bob and George?"

Running might be a good idea.

As with a loud, metallic snap, three long metal rods, the ends sharp and rusty, sprang up from the floor immediately behind Gauntlet, even as another shot out of the wall to Rob's left at an angle and missed impaling his right leg by an inch.

"I guess there's not going to be a convenient explosion to throw me off panel."

No.

"Even Howard the Duck wouldn't get this sort of treatment!" Gauntlet yelled as he ran for it, as the walls and floor erupted with a myriad of deadly spiked rods, the points trying to ram their way into Gauntlet as he ducked, dodged, jumped, dove, and basically invented a whole new field of gymnastics to escape with his hide in one piece, doing one final dive forward, narrowly missing three final piercing spikes as he got out of the deadly hallway, rolling forward and to his knees.

He took a few deep breaths, and then slowly stood up, looking back at the room.

"Well then. Indy sure made it look harder than it really is." Gauntlet said.

And then he yelled as the floor abruptly opened up beneath him, sending him plunging to his doom down a narrow pit filled with rusty blades. Indy never saw that coming in the stunt show as well.

But the same luck Mr. Jones had also held true for Gauntlet, as roots of trees had long grown into the room he'd dove into, covering the walls and floor, and fortunately serving as something Gauntlet managed to grab as he fell, as he wrestled his way back up via the unsteady support, pulling himself out of the hole.

"It'll take more then gravity and physics to stop Robert Candide!" Gauntlet declared.

Yes, that would explain how you managed to hang onto your lit torch during the past two trap escapes without somehow setting yourself on fire.

"I'm not the one writing this. If I was, I'd be making out with Starfire on a pile of signed confessions from those little brats as Robin read me a long, elaborate apology."

Touché.

Holding his inexplicable torch high, Gauntlet headed into the next door, climbed a pair of surprisingly unrigged stairs, and then headed into another hallway…a wide one in which three statues stood on the left side, the stone and metal of their construction long worn and corroded with age…which seemed to do nothing to the massive stone swords they were holding aloft.

"Oh please, even I know the answer to this one." Gauntlet said as he walked forward, being careful not to step on any hidden switches. Unfortunately, Rob's foresight had not extended to bringing any devices that could fake out the mechanisms on this statues: the attempted laser-sighting mist (having expecting the traps to be more high tech) had merely been bug spray whose water had gone stagnant, and the only other thing Gauntlet had brought was a bag of sand and his lucky pants. Why did he not equip himself better, when he'd seemingly KNOWN that the place he was trying to sneak into would have traps?

"My name is Gauntlet, not Tool Belt."

Hence proving Savior's viewpoints were not entirely personal bias.

"You know, if you want to comment on intelligence, you could say something about how surely these things would have broken down by now, as old as they are, but fine, I'll play…" Gauntlet said, as he carefully crept up to the first statue…and darted past it.

Nothing happened.

Gauntlet peered back, looking at the unmoving statue, then waved his arm where the sword should have dropped and then jerked it away.

Nothing.

Gauntlet ran back in front of it and then away as quickly as he could.

Still nothing.

Gauntlet danced in front of it.

If you guessed nothing, you'd be correct.

"Well nice to see ancient gears don't hold up well after centuries of…" Gauntlet said as he walked on, passing by the second statue…

Whose sword plummeted towards his head.

"JINKIES!" Gauntlet yelled as he ran forward, the sword crashing into the ground behind him…

As the third swung down as he proceeded to run right beneath it.

WHAMMO!

"…I think I lost some back skin." Gauntlet commented, standing literally an inch beyond where the stone sword had dropped, briefly paralyzed by how close he'd come to being smashed. After a few seconds though, he recovered and began moving forward on legs that were only slightly shaky.

Passing through the next door, Gauntlet wasn't much surprised to find himself in a large open room, whose sole features were a large door at the end and a pedestal with a generic stone idol placed on it.

"Of course, have to make the theft whole-hog." Gauntlet said as he approached the statue, taking out his bag of opportune sand. "Fortunately, I have a few tricks Mr. Jones did not…" Gauntlet said, as he put his torch in a convenient nearby wall holder and activated his gauntlet, the metal consuming his arm as he reached out with the yellow energy it produced.

The energy gripped the idol, but did not move it, as Gauntlet used it to puzzle out the weight of the small relic, carefully sifting sand out of his small bag with another energy tendril, until he was certain the two weights matched up.

Removing the yellow energy, Gauntlet stepped right up the pedestal, rolling his fingers as he slowly brought his hands towards the idol…

And then decided to hell with it and simply snatched it, reasoning that if the trap was inevitable, he may as well control when it hit him.

And with that…the door opened.

"…no wonder no one ever made it out of here alive." Gauntlet said as he walked past the pedestal and heading through the door, tossing the bag of sand behind him…

…which by all odds landed right on the pedestal.

Gauntlet whirled around as it began to sink into the ground. He knew what was coming next.

"…Legend Maker, some day you will invent your own trap. I guess that day isn't today." Gauntlet said, and turned and ran as the ceiling abruptly opened behind Gauntlet and down rolled a gigantic boulder, the deadly rock spinning on down the hall after Gauntlet.

(Up starts the familiar theme…of Katamari Damacy)

"Huh, and here I was expecting the theme from Indiana Jones, considering you just stole EVERY SINGLE OTHER CLICHÉ TO COME OUT OF INDIANA JONES!"

Do you see any Nazis?

"I'd almost welcome them at this point! Or maybe an escape route through the forth wall you've been dismantling brick by brick! Or…wait, what am I DOING?" Gauntlet realized.

And he stopped, turning on a dime, and with one mighty blow from his yellow energy Gauntlet projection, smashed the rolling boulder into pebbles.

"I guess I can still rock your world." Gauntlet said, as tiny stone chips fell around him.

Who are you talking to?

"I dunno, you're the one who likes bad one liners." Gauntlet said, and moved on.

His lack of equipment swiftly reared its ugly head again, as Gauntlet found the heat rising. Wishing he had a towel, Gauntlet mopped his forehead with his sleeve instead as he continued on…

And exited out into another large chamber that consisted of a stone bridge over a river of boiling magma.

And the bridge was occupied.

"So you made it this far!" Spoke the being, who was some sort of lizard man, a creature with the body framework of a human and the skin and features of a reptile, holding a barbed trident. "I am Grk'tha, human! Since the dawn of time, it has been my family's duty to guard the inner sanctum of this sacred organization you attempt to infiltrate! I commend you for making it this far! But I warn you human, to pass, you must give me the code word and defeat me in battle! Be warned, fair skinned one, many have faced me and…"

KER-PUNCH! Gauntlet smashed Grk'tha in the face with the generic idol statue, knocking him out and shattering the small stone remnant.

"Thanks, I needed a use for that." Gauntlet said as he stepped over Grk'tha and walked across the bridge. "My tax dollars at work, I guess. And all of this Masonic imagery in the art makes me wonder if those conspiracy theorists were right…AHA!" Gauntlet proclaimed as the bridge ended in another stone room that had a much smaller and more modern door. "Finally!"

There was no lock or trap on the door: Gauntlet headed through it, passing through a few rooms that had various habitable elements (Grk'tha's quarters, assumingly), leading to a modern set of stairs that Gauntlet went up, quickly finding the room he had been looking for in the building he has just snuck into via a back door.

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE-HARD COPY RECORDS.

"Don't look so shocked." Gauntlet said, and headed into the room.

The massive room, filled to the brim with filed papers. Gauntlet sweatdropped, realizing that finding the records he was searching for THIS time would probably be a lot harder. Maybe he shouldn't have spent Cyborg's lessons on hacking playing on his Gamestation Go.

"Apparently the IRS hasn't gotten the memo on the rainforests." Gauntlet said as he began sifting through mountains of paper.

* * *

And even as Rob conducted his strange search, the usual continued for the Titans.

"All right, this is a simpler task then the last one." Robin said from where he stood: this time, the training session was taking place inside Titan Tower. "Thinking before you act is the first step in the more subtle aspects of combat, but there are others as well. And one of the big ones is visual perception. Being able to see plays a gigantic part in both combat and life, and losing that ability, whether temporarily or permanently, can be immensely crippling. However, it can be recovered from, but only after a lot of re-training. Since you never know what a villain is going to do, anticipating these things can help. Therefore, today I'm going to try and give you a general feeling for fighting without sight. We're going to blindfold you and then walk around you: what you need to do is find us with your other senses and touch us. JUST touch us, not hit us. That includes using blasts. We're not as enduring as you, after all." Robin said.

"Bird boy specifically." Terra cracked: Robin gave her a mock intense glare, and Terra in turn mock-cowered away from him.

"Anyway, don't worry about instantly predicting where we are. We're not expecting you to be Zatoichi."

"Who?" Blast asked. Robin eyerolled as he realized once again he'd made a pop culture reference the kids would never understand.

"He was a fictional swordsman who couldn't see and yet was a warrior without peer."

"What?"

"He was blind but so good no one could beat him anyway." Beast Boy helpfully translated.

"Oh. Cool!" Blast proclaimed.

"Yes, cool. But don't expect that, that takes decades of training." Robin said as he produced the blindfold. "Anyone want to go first?"

"Um…Mr. Robin…do we have to do this?" Blaze asked. Robin looked over at the girl, noting that she seemed rather nervous.

"Well, um, we don't HAVE to…but it's a good thing to get some idea of Blaze. Why?" Robin asked.

"HAH! Blaze is still afraid of the dark!" Blast cracked before Blaze could answer.

"I AM NOT!" Blaze yelled.

"You are too! You sleep with a nightlight! You scream every time there's a blackout! Chicken! Chicken!"

"I AM NOT…!"

"BLAST! ENOUGH!" Robin snapped, slamming the end of his staff down on the ground to stop the argument before it exploded into a fight. "Don't tease Blaze. Everyone is afraid of something and you're no exception, so don't bother Blaze over what she might fear!"

Blast looked suitably chastened (which relieved Robin as the back of his mind once again piped up the child could easily crush him into paste), but Blaze still looked upset and angered, while Bolt seemed to be wondering if he should step in or stay out of the fight.

"Blaze, if you really don't want to do it, I won't force you. But you can't let fear hold you back. It's all right to be afraid. You just can't, as I've said, let it control you."

"I'm not afraid of the dark." Blaze said, but her youthful brain, face, and voice was incapable of telling that lie in any form that could fool Robin.

"All right, if that's what you say. But Blaze, just remember this: the unknown plays a part in every known fear, and we are forever going to be aware of the unknown in our life. Were you afraid of the dark before you were born? Will you be afraid once you pass on? It's just a matter of, like this exercise, perception. But if it really makes you uncomfortable, you can sit out."

"No no! I'll do it! In fact I'll win!" Blaze protested, and stuck her tongue out at Blast.

"There are no winners in these exercises. Just do your best and try to learn. Who wants to go first?"

In the end Robin picked Bolt, blindfolding him as Beast Boy initiated the first stage of the testing, as he turned into a gorilla and lumbered around Bolt, purposely making as much noise as possible. Blaze and Blast giggled at Beast Boy's hammy way of moving…and Beast Boy ended up regretting it as Bolt found him quickly…and accidentally gave him a mild shock with his touch due to the blindfold, causing Beast Boy to jump with a pained squeak.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to!" Bolt apologized as he pulled the blindfold off, even as Blast and Blaze began cracking up over Beast Boy's fur now all standing on end and his dazed appearance.

"S'ok." Beast Boy mumbled, a wisp of smoke coming from his mouth as he spoke. "Drrruhhh…is that supposed to happen?"

* * *

Accidental electrocutions aside, the Titans were having a considerably better time then Gauntlet, who was by now cursing the fact that the cliché that accountants were dull and lifeless was far more accurate then a lot of people would like, as he'd spent countless hours (or maybe it was more like 40 minutes, time dragged on FOREVER when the task was this damn DULL) going through the files and paperwork in the room he'd risked so much to enter.

But it was worth it, as he slammed a file drawer shut.

"All right! I was right! Unless you take into account that I rushed the job because it was boring, or any kind of human error on behalf of myself or others, and the fact I spilled my Pepsi all over one drawer and decided checking it would be too much trouble, it is certain: the parents have NO TAX RETURNS! You can put a computer file into a system easier then you can slip an actual forgery into some paperwork layouts: I knew the sheer complexity of their little setup means they'd forget or slip up on some detail! FINALLY, the government will be on my side!"

"Hey, how did you get in here?" A guard said as he popped out of nowhere.

"Ah good, I can go straight to the police!" Gauntlet said.

* * *

A few minutes later…

"I WAS REFERRING TO HAVING OTHERS TAKEN TO THE POLICE, NOT ME!" Gauntlet yelled as he was dragged out of the IRS building.

"You're not going, the police already know you have some bug up your butt and are running around committing various misdemeanors. Until you cross over into felonies, they say it's easier to just toss you to the curb." The burly guard said as he and his brother guard hauled Gauntlet out the door and dumped him on the street. "And stay out."

"I'M TELLING YOU, THEY ALL NEED A SEVERE AUDITING!" Gauntlet yelled in protested as the doors closed in his face, and then with a groan and a grumble he got up. "Damn it, now I need a new angle. Well, I'm sure I'll think of something."

And certainly it would be as brilliant as pretending to be a statue, threatening kindergarteners, and breaking into the IRS.

"OH JUST SHUT UP!"

* * *

And more time passed…

"While it is generally the way of the innocents to run and make various loud noises when it comes to our battles, you were occasionally find the unfortunate or the ones with necks of rubber who get caught in them. That is the purpose of the exercise today: we have taught you about accuracy, now we're going to try and teach you some lessons about reflexes. This is very similar to the training of Earth policemen: cutouts of cardboard will pop out of our setup here, and you will have to shoot the 'bad guys' and not shoot the 'good guys'. To make it easier, we've spraypainted the bad guys red and the good guys green, but I will warn you there is something of a time limit for striking targets. But remember, the primary purpose is to not shoot the good targets. I will demonstrate." Starfire said, as she turned and faced the mechanical setup on another part of Titan Island.

The computer buzzed to let them know the exercise had started, and then a stereotypical robber popped out, the red paint still drying on him.

Then he had a giant hole in his chest, as Starfire blasted him.

Out popped another robber. He got his own hole. Out popped an old woman. She remained unharmed. Out popped a nasty looking punk. He got an extreme haircut.

And so on it went, as Starfire scored a perfect round.

"I would like to note I have had much training at this and this is not near the highest difficulty settings." Starfire said, turning to the Zap Pack, who nodded. "Blaze, you first."

And so Blaze tried to practice shooting targets while not hitting innocents, as Robin looked on via the computer monitor, and then turned back to his work.

His geographic profiling was finally starting to get somewhere, but there were still too many variables to nail down anything exceptionally useful. That was about the only thing: he still hadn't heard back from Batman, Oracle, Blood, or Sand, the police he was working with had come up with nothing helpful, and Robin's own mind had yet to mix the ingredients into something palatable.

He tried not to let it bother him: sometimes cases took years, if not decades to finally become clear. Then again, with all the advances made in the past 20 years, that really shouldn't happen any more, especially when it involved missing kids, let alone this many.

But if he let that affect his thinking, it would just become harder, as Robin reminded himself for the latest time. So once again, he sat back and stared at the screen, the colors washing over his face as he sat there, fingers interlaced and blank masked eyes never seeming to blink.

* * *

Gauntlet seemed to be going for as much unplanned mirroring as he could, as he himself was sitting down at a park bench. Though the reason why was unclear, there was nothing around or in front of him that spoke of any kind of unusualness.

But Gauntlet continued to sit there.

…still sitting there.

…this is not what…

"Yeah I know what's supposed to happen next! Bugger that, I'm sitting here until I damn well feel like it!" Gauntlet snapped.

But there's another…

"I know the next plot point in your little mystery! I'm not going there! I've had enough of your constant knocks and sly backhands at my intelligence! I'm sitting here until I decide I want to move on!"

Is this really necessary…

"YES! YOU wrote the plot of this story, YOU decided to inflict the damage you did on your character, YOU removed him from the main plot line in this fashion, so YOU should be able to move on without constantly belittling CERTAIN PEOPLE because your OC isn't here to do it! But you keep doing it, so I'm just going to sit here to teach you a lesson!"

_**Oh my life. The readers have been yanked out of their suspension of disbelief enough. You can only do this metafictional stuff so much before…**_

"Who said I was doing it? Buzz off!" Gauntlet said as he crossed his arms.

Perhaps we shall come back later…

* * *

Geographic profiling, Robin mused as he watched the data continue to compile. Yet another invention to investigate crimes and catch suspects, of a long string of them going all the way back to fingerprints.

And yet…could any of them really be of any use, considering some of the possibilities that were dancing at the back of Robin's head.

Robin frowned, not wanting to go down that path. There had been clever criminals (though they were rare) long before superhumans began popping up everywhere. One couldn't automatically attribute the curiosities of this case solely to some kind of inhuman involvement…

But damn it, the picture wasn't coming to him in the normal fashion. And if Robin started contemplating ABNORMAL fashions…well, he might end up sitting in that chair until the stars burned out.

The dark side of superhuman crime was that, usually, it was so obvious a five year old could convict the doers of whatever illegal deeds they'd committed, but when it wasn't...

Sherlock Holmes had said (in Arthor Conan Doyle's second Holmes novel _The Sign of the Four_) that when it came to mysteries, once you had eliminated the impossible, whatever remained, however improbable, had to be the truth, and indeed, Holmes' methods could be said to be one of the fathers of forensics…but Mr. Doyle had lived in a time before the world knew widely of the many strange things that permuted it now. How did you convict a murderer who disposed of bodies and tools in another dimension? How did you convict a rapist who commanded mental abilities and blanked women's minds after the crime, leaving them with no recollection of the great harm done to them, not even subconsciously? How did you convict a bank robber who could subtly manipulate the flow of time to the point where he could reverse the events that had led up to the money being stolen by him, but not the actual theft of the money, making it look to any bystanders that said money had literally disappeared into thin air? How could you bring the gifts of science against beings that laughed in its face? How did you eliminate the impossible when that was the only way the situation WAS possible?

And there he went again, Robin realized. He couldn't devote thoughts to that, not yet. If he started considering possibilities like the children being abducted by aliens, then he might as well not be trying to solve the crime at all. As the saying by William of Ockham said, 'Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity', which meant that when it came to a problem, one should always start at the simplest answer, as said simple answer would probably be the case, a technique better known as…

And once again, Robin was interrupted in his thought process by the alarm, as he blinked, and then glanced at the screen with his friends and the Zap Pack. They were standing there, waiting for his order.

He never did care to be interrupted, but then again, he doubted firemen liked being woken up in the middle of the night, but they did their jobs and Robin did his, as he ran out of the room.

Maybe he'd be lucky and it'd be another Cody Grant.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gauntlet…was still sitting on his bench.

"You think cutting away will change my mind? No. I've got a bag of Snickers and a urine bottle, and I'm staying here until I get some respect." Gauntlet said.

And so Gauntlet sat on the bench, in the small park…while little more then a block away…

* * *

"Let's test the KW-20 on the amoeba, Marci! All previous tests have indicated no results that wouldn't fall among safety parameters, Marci! I have a good feeling, Marci! We'll get raises, Marci! YOU FUCKING MORON! Why did I EVER consider sleeping with you to be a good idea!" A mid-30's somewhat attractive blonde scientist, her looks somewhat wrecked by her great anger and torn outfit, screamed at her companion, a balding man in his early-40's.

"OH SHUT UP!" Gerald Shepard yelled back, the lab they worked in and the building it had been in in ruins as the cause of said ruins lurched down a nearby street, sending pedestrians screaming in fear.

"We're here-UGH!" Beast Boy started declaring before he saw the monster that was causing the destruction…a giant, green, tentacled, horned squid-like monster with one giant eye and a mouth full of sharp teeth. "Ugly sucker! Like someone shot an octopus with an overdose of ugly!"

"…is anyone else getting the feeling of the déjà vu?" Starfire asked, arriving with the Zap Pack, even as Terra flew down below, getting people out of the way.

"I dunno. Did we fight this thing before Robin? I have an odd sense myself." Beast Boy said to his leader as Robin landed on the building next to him. Robin narrowed his eyes: the creature DID seem familiar in some way…

"…I don't know! Maybe in another life, or a nightmare or something!" Robin said, and was just about to give an order…when a bus abruptly drove in from a street parallel to the one the creature was advancing down, not seeing the giant monster until it was too late.

Robin could hear the shrieking of the brakes and the passengers, but stopping was probably the worst thing the bus could have done, as the monster seized onto the vehicle and lifted it like it was nothing, sending it flying through the air with a roar. Robin's eyes went wide.

"QUICK DON'T…!"

And that was all Robin got out, as Blast and Bolt zapped over and seized the bus, stopping it in mid air by grabbing one side each. Robin breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good, get them clear! Blaze, help Terra for the moment! The rest of you, you know the drill!" Robin yelled as he ran and leapt off the roof, firing his grapple and swinging down to the street as Beast Boy and Starfire took flight.

Robin hurled several Birdarangs at the monster (which he had mentally dubbed the OmniOck for convenience), but the projectiles just sank into the gell-like flesh of the creature, doing seemingly no damage. Beast Boy flew down to the street as a hawk, turned into a cheetah to get a running start, and then became a T-Rex, crashing into the hideous monster and tearing at it with his feet (Beast Boy wasn't going to try to bite it, who knew where that thing had been!), but the OmniOck seized his giant saurian form with more tentacles and hurled Beast Boy backwards, sending his massive body crashing through the street and forcing Robin to launch his grapple again and swing out of the way. Starfire flew in even as Beast Boy was repelled, spraying Starbolts down on the beast…which sank into its skin, disappearing with seemingly no effect.

Was it Robin's imagination, or was it now a touch bigger?

Beast Boy turned back into himself and shook his head, even as Terra flew past him, eyes blazing gold.

"You son of a…submariner! TRY THIS!" Terra yelled, once again censoring herself for the Zap Pack's sake, as she tore up the streets and hurled the pieces at the OmniOck. They proved as ineffective as Robin's Birdarangs, and as Terra swooped up to avoid the thrashing tentacles Starfire flew back in, this time raking her eye beams across the monster. It resulted in the same effect of her Starbolts, and Robin cursed as he ran in, hurling explosive discs this time.

The blasts just seemed to make the creature angry, as it bellowed a hideous wet scream and swiped at Robin, who didn't backpedal as fast as he wanted: one of the tentacles caught him a glancing blow and sent him flying backwards.

Blast caught him, settling him down on the ground.

"Are you okay Robin? Should we attack it?" Blast asked, as Robin caught his breath. He was now almost certain his eyes had been right: the creature WAS larger then it had been when the fight began.

"Give it a second." Robin said, as he pulled out his communicator with one hand and felt along his chest piece with another: as he'd hoped, the monster had left a trace of its jelly-like body on him, and with a few quick button presses a slide popped out of the communicator. Robin smeared the trace on it and snapped the slide back in, as the amazing technology within the Titan communicator went to work and began analyzing the substance…

Even as Terra flew in again, having ripped up a big chunk of another nearby street that she began bashing into the OmniOck. But her blows did no damage to the creature's body, and with another roar it swung out with its limbs, smashing the rock and sending Terra flying backwards, where Beast Boy grabbed her as a jumping gorilla.

"Robin, what do we do?" Starfire asked as she flew up to him.

"Fall back…just for the moment…GO, GO!" Robin yelled as he and the alien retreated, followed by the Zap Pack. Robin was barely watching where he was going, as he stared at his communicator, even as it began calling up results.

The group ran under some power lines, and the creature followed…as it reached up and seized the wooden poles, snapping them like twigs as electricity coursed from the breaking wires, surging through the monster's body. But the noise it made wasn't of pain: it almost sounded like approval…as its form shifted and bulged, growing even larger from the power it had just sucked up.

"Damn." Robin said, seeing his hypothesis confirmed, as the creature moved on…

Leaving the fallen wires sparking on the ground.

Robin found his eyes drawn to that, and then looked down at his communicator screen at the general analysis the device could offer on the creature's cellular structure, and then back at the wires.

"Right then." Robin said, and then turned to Starfire and the Zap Pack. "All right guys, we have a problem: this thing's body absorbs what it doesn't negate. But, if what my reading says is accurate, the absorption ability is unstable. I think we can overload it."

"How?" Bolt asked.

"Guys, you ever eaten so much candy you've gotten sick?"

"Yes." Came from all three of the Zap Pack in a surprisingly resigned tone.

"That's what we're going to do here. I want you guys to fly out of his range and then hit it with the strongest projectile attacks you can!"

"But Robin, don't we run the risk of just making it even bigger and hence even more of a problem?" Starfire asked.

"I know. I don't think that will happen though. See how it drained the power lines? It only held on for a bit, then let go: it could have just held on until it drained the whole city dry. I think its biological structure needs to rest and adapt briefly between each energy absorption. If it eats too much, well…picture a balloon tied to a sink tap. You know what would happen to the…"

A shadow fell over the group, and Robin yelled and leapt backwards as a tentacle came slamming down, the OmniOck having gotten close enough while Robin was talking to lash out at the group, shattering the street as the heroes got out of the way.

"Just do it! Quickly!" Robin yelled, and with a look of worry Starfire and the Zap Pack flew up and away, surrounding the OmniOck as Terra and Beast Boy flew down next to Robin.

"Dude, what's the plan?" Beast Boy asked.

"Back up and watch, Beast Boy, and hope it doesn't involve bullets and my walking extremities." Robin said, even as he himself started running backwards.

As Starfire concentrated, emerald power gathering in her hands, and then she fired, blasting a concentrated beam of green power down on the OmniOck, an attack Blast quickly duplicated with his own blue energy beam. Bolt swung his hands around him as he charged up and then fired his own blast of electrical power, while Blaze sent down a stream of fire no flamethrower on the planet could duplicate.

The OmniOck bellowed as the heat, energy, and kinetic force was hammered into him, its mutated cells swelling up from the power as the creature began to grow again, rising up above the buildings it had previously been smaller than.

"Uh, dude, I don't think this is a very good plan!" Beast Boy yelled at Robin as the three fled down the street, even as the creature smashed the (now empty) buildings around it as it continued to grow larger, forcing Starfire and the Zap Pack back. But they kept up the attack.

"Oh geez…" Robin said, as he stopped running, turned around, and held up his communicator, using the aforementioned sample acquired a moment earlier to do a general scan of the creature, looking at the results, wondering if he was wrong…

And then alarms began sounding off from the readings, and Robin grinned fiercely, even as the creature's roaring suddenly took on an agonizing tone and its body began to bulge and swell.

"Terra, I think we could use an umbrella." Robin said.

"What? Why would…"

The OmniOck screamed, the sound shattering windows a few blocks distant and sending the three Titans recoiling, holding their ears.

And then the creature's whole body seemed to lose cohesion, the tentacles and main body disintegrating into a mess of green and yellow fluid, the entire monster falling apart in seconds, leaving just a city street covered in disgusting ooze.

The four airborne heroes stopped blasting, and a moment later Terra split apart her rock barrier as the three Titans on the ground peered curiously at the sight. Robin looked at the mess and sighed in relief.

"For once, we had a monster that IMPLODED." Robin said.

"All right, we did it! And we didn't even need atomic battle suits!" Beast Boy celebrated.

"Since when did we have atomic battle suits?" Terra asked. Beast Boy opened his mouth…and then let it hang there as he realized he had no idea.

"Very nice work team. Are you all right?" Robin asked as Starfire and the Zap Pack flew down.

"The scream was unpleasant, but nothing I could not handle. Are your ears uninjured, children?"

"We're all right." Bolt said, though Blast seemed a touch dazed.

"Yuck!" Blaze said, looking at the mess. "Is it dead?"

"I think so…" Robin said, as he scanned the streets and a sample of the guck. "Unlike Aberration, the cells all appear to be dead. I'm sure the S.T.A.R Labs biohazard team can confirm it, but I'm pretty sure its dead."

"YAY! ZAP PACK, GO!" The Zap Pack declared, doing their slamming fist victory pose.

"Yeah. You did good guys. Real good." Robin said, as he slightly adjusted his mask. Blast, delighted, offered Robin a high-five.

Robin hesitated a moment, then took it, smiling to himself. It was nice to feel good about heroing again.

* * *

For the moment it lasted.

"Robin, why did you purposely make the monster bigger with the damage it did to the city?" A reporter yelled at Robin, who grimaced. He'd waited there for the police and the aforementioned S.T.A.R team to get there so he could brief them, and by doing so he'd exposed himself to the media when they'd managed to find a hole in the perimeter the police had erected and charged through, singling out the Titans' leader.

"Uh, wait, I was trying to STOP the creature, it just got bigger before it could…" Robin said, caught off guard.

"Why did you wait to do this while the creature and your teammates caused great damage to the surrounding areas?"

"What? What damage?"

"The Titan Terra has ruined the roads for several blocks!"

"Didn't stop you." Robin said under his breath. "I am sorry, my team and I always try to minimize damage…"

"What do you have to say of the accusation you are personally putting the Zap Pack in harm's way?"

"WHAT?" Robin erupted, once again in sheer disbelief of the way the media was acting.

"What about the claim you're trying to sabotage them so they'll quit?"

"How about the children right's groups condemning you for using the children as weapons?"

"Wait, hold on, just…" Robin said as he tried to find some control of the situation even as the media yelled questions and lights flashed.

"Hey, leave him alone!" Came a yell, and then Bolt dropped down from the sky. "If the Titans hadn't been here and Robin hadn't thought of a plan, the whole CITY might have been smashed instead of just this area! And no one got hurt!"

"Yeah! Leave him alone! Meanies!" Blaze added, popping out from behind Robin.

The reporters, as expected, did not shut up: they just redirected their assault on the Zap Pack, who looked like deer caught in headlights.

"No comment from them! There is no interview!" Robin yelled, as he grabbed the two kids and dragged them away, pulling them behind a police van as the reporters hollered behind them.

"Dude, I mean…geez." Beast Boy said, drinking coffee behind the same van. "Didn't they used to like us?"

"Yeah, why are they so mean, Robin?" Bolt asked. "You did your best!"

"That we did. You're too young to really understand guys, but I'll just say this: people, for a lot of reasons, can get things wrong, so don't believe everything you hear." Robin said. "I had S.T.A.R check the area for toxins or diseases, it came back clean. We're done here. How about we go get pizza?"

"YAY!!!!!!" The Zap Pack…AND Beast Boy and Terra cheered, and you could barely tell one from the other.

"…that was EERIE." Robin commented.

* * *

And so, we return to the park bench…

"Nice try."

UGH, to the park bench and a very unreasonable teenager.

"You think you can Pied Piper me off this bench by dumping the mutant creature almost at my feet? I thought I told you, I'm not stupid, and yet you keep treating me that way! Well, I'll learn ya!" Gauntlet said, as he started humming 'We Shall Overcome' and held up a sign that said 'LEGENDMAKER IS MEAN'.

_**ARGH! LOOK Candide, this was somewhat amusing at first, but this arc's already damn long and you're not helping reduce that! It's time for the plot to advance, so stop being Whiny Mcemosulk and go!**_

"No! I have rights!"

_…**Gauntlet, don't forget who's in charge here. If you refuse to move, I can always MAKE you move.**_

"I'd like to see you try!"

And then, without any apparent source or reason, the ground split open, and Trigon emerged, wielding a pitchfork that he jabbed into Gauntlet's rear end.

"YEOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

Then Trigon remembered he was dead and fell into a plot hole, vanishing back into the ether.

"Ow. You lousy…" Gauntlet cursed as he rubbed his rear.

_**Get moving to your next attempt to unwrap the mystery you have Rob, or next time it will be a barbed pole and it will be placed in a far more SENSITIVE area in the general vicinity of your gluteus maximus!**_

"All right, all right, I'm going, lousy rassrrrn frarsnnnn…" Gauntlet said as he headed onward…

* * *

And more time passed…

("Oh COME ON ALL THAT AND YOU JUST CUT AWAY?")

"Hmmmmmmm…" Robin said, as he read the e-mail he had gotten from Superman. Robin had, on a whim, sent off some emails to other heroes or possible connections to said heroes, enquiring if they knew of any of their magical villains were in the history of giving out powers. Superman had replied, saying that he could recall several times when Mxyzptlk had empowered normal people, but the way Robin had described the Zap Pack sounded too straight-forward, lacking any apparent punch line. Nevertheless, he said he'd ask around the Watchtower when he had a spare moment. Considering how busy Superman tended to be, Robin expected that to occur sometime around his 27th birthday.

That left the mystery of the Zap Pack's 'empowering metal' as murky as ever, though Robin was strongly beginning to lean towards magic, as all his tests for a scientific source kept coming up with nothing, that anomaly he'd found in the makeup aside (and that might turn out to be a red herring anyway). Robin had taken another look at the children's medical records, but that hadn't helped: Robin wondered if he should get the kids to have a physical by Robin's personal physician.

And there was still the matter of the missing kids.

The geographic profiling was finally getting somewhere, as it had produced some viable results in the early kidnapping sites, but the increased scope in areas and numbers were still resulting in work in trying to puzzle out the later sites (which were the important ones as they would be the ones needed to hide the larger groups of kids). Robin had passed it on to the necessary detectives and entered data gathered from those results into the still-compiling programs, but with that done Robin was once again at square one.

But he had a feeling. Like a classic gold miner, he had a strong undertone in his gut that he was about to strike it rich.

Then again, virtually everyone who had gotten involved in gold rushes had ended up poorer when they were done than when they started.

Robin smacked the side of his head: out of the darkness…no good lay in the darkness…

* * *

Gauntlet was doing his own hopeful thinking: that the person he was looking for was actually in the only place Rob knew where to find him.

It was always a gamble going up to the Watchtower, the main headquarters of the Justice League, when you were looking for a certain hero. The place was large and complicated, and communication wasn't perfect: someone you thought or was supposed to be up there could turn out to be anywhere but. At least there was a teleport site near Jump, which Rob had used to get up there. Now he just had to find the man he was looking for: the Question.

But, as said, there was no guarantee he'd be there. He might be looking after his own city, or doing something with Huntress, or tracking down the thread of the latest conspiracy he was pondering, or maybe on an assigned mission, or hell, he could even be on vacation.

As it turned out, he WAS on the Watchtower.

"Whew, that was lucky." Gauntlet said to J'onn J'onnz, the Martian Manhunter.

"Not really. The Question somehow got put on a sexual offenders list. He's pretty much under house arrest here until we can clear this up. It's difficult to get an alibi for someone who goes out of his way to make sure no one knows where he is or what he's doing." J'onn said to Gauntlet, albeit while looking at the computer to check on any new possible arrivals. That was a good thing, as the martian wouldn't have to be a mind reader to know something was up with Gauntlet's stricken face.

"Really? Uh, wow…I'll be going now." Gauntlet said, and ran off. J'onn glanced up, and then decided he probably didn't want to know.

* * *

"All right, this test is simple. You're going to toss a baseball back and forth between each other while gradually moving father away. The goal is to see how far away you can get from each other without dropping it. Remember, it's not a contest. It's just a game of catch. Starfire, you can play with Blast. Now, play ball!" Beast Boy said as he pulled down the umpire's mask he had produced from who knows where. Maybe it was Hammer Space.

"I believe I recall how this goes…hey babe hum babe hum babe hey no batter hey fire that ball hum that pellet whip that hose baby sling that sphere c'mon heave that horsehide right in there fling that orb hum unload that globe hey babe hey batter…" Starfire trailed off as she realized her attempted baseball outfielder chant was making Blast look at her like she had three heads, again. "Perhaps I should just throw the ball?"

"Yeah." Blast replied, still giving Starfire a weird look. Starfire tossed the ball to him, and the teens mostly forgot the test as they enjoyed a basic game of catch.

* * *

"So, Mr. Question, what information do you have on them?" Gauntlet asked, trying not to gleefully rub his hands together.

"What information do you want?" The blank-faced detective/martial artist/mystic at times asked.

"What information do you think would be good?" Rob replied.

"What is good?"

"…what do you think would help me expose these frauds?"

"Why are you so certain they are?"

"Why do you keep avoiding the questions with more questions!?" Rob expostulated.

"Why do you think I'm avoiding the question?" The Question responded, his tone having remained unchanged the entire time.

"…Have you ever answered ANYBODY in a straightforward way?" Rob asked, exasperated.

"Who have you been talking to?"

"ARGH!" Gauntlet yelled, as he watched yet another surefire thing seemingly go up in smoke. "Is there ANYBODY ELSE I could talk to?"

"Have you met my counterpart the Answer?" The Question said, as he stepped aside…revealing a man who was virtually an identical clone of the Question, save he wore a flesh colored suit and a blue blanking mask.

"No, but great! Do you have anything about the Zap Pack, or families called the Bonapartes, Pickards, or Rodkeys?" Gauntlet asked.

"The Spanish-American War." The Answer replied.

"What?"

"The Treaty of Gent."

"ARGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Rob screamed. "I don't just need answers, I need RELEVANT answers!"

"Doctor Who."

* * *

"You're lucky they just defended themselves kid. If you were my kid, I'd spank your ass." John Stewart said as he pulled Gauntlet along with him, having had to drag the teenager away from attacking the Question and Answer.

"You're much nicer on the Daily Show." Gauntlet grumped. Stewart gave the Titan one of his best Marine glares: that was enough to cut off any more smartaleck remarks.

"What were you thinking, attacking those two?" John asked a moment later.

"They wouldn't give me any information!"

"I heard plenty. You could write a history report with all that info."

"ARGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

"All right, you will learn these more in depth if you study martial arts, but when it comes to hitting, there are a variety of advantages of knowing where you're striking instead of just swinging wildly. This is of course assuming you're fighting something that is human or humanoid. We already taught you the basics of pulling your punches: this lesson will be based on the assumption you are fighting something you won't kill if you strike once." Robin said, having taken a break from his detective work to come out and teach the Zap Pack some more. They were sitting in front of him, with the rest of his team standing or lounging around as usual. As a demonstration model, he'd pulled out the Fake Cyborg again. And yes, it was still randomly saying 'the Booyah'.

Robin pulled out his staff and extended it, using it as a pointer.

"The head…the forehead is an effective place to strike to knock people out. The back of the head works as well, but can be harder to access in a straight fight. Striking the eyes can cause swelling, interrupting the vision of the target. Damaging the nose can inhibit breathing, as can the jaw. Now, moving down, the shoulders get a bum rap in movies: they're a specific design of bones and tendons, you can't get shot in them and just ignore it. Striking them can disable the arms. Further down, the ribs can also be used to inhibit breathing, but if you're not careful you can cause them to rupture organs, which is not good. Likewise, you should stay away from spinal blows: too much can go wrong there. With me so far?"

The Zap Pack nodded, and the content of the discussion didn't seem to be bothering them, so Robin continued.

"Now, striking the stomach can expel air from the lungs, as it doesn't have bone protection; it can also double people over, exposing the back of the head…" Robin said, demonstrating just what 'doubling people over' meant on the robot. Amazingly, it did not yell the usual. "Now, onto the legs. The knees are a very potent target: doing harm to them can cause disabling pain AND damage, and they're less well protected in terms of bone density then the skull and chest. If you want to use them as a weapon to strike, like in variations of Muay Thai kickboxing, you have to be VERY careful. On a lesser scale, ankles can also disable, as two legged creatures are crippled far worse by the loss of a leg then four legged ones. And that's about it." Robin said. "There's more, but it would probably confuse you. Any questions on these basics?"

Maybe Robin had underestimated how well they were absorbing it: the three now looked a little overwhelmed.

"Well…uh…" Blast began.

"Want me to repeat myself?"

"Yes please."

"All right. Starting with the head again…"

* * *

And Gauntlet, it seemed, was finally using his. After the fiasco with the Question, Gauntlet had almost given up, but then he'd realized that if the steak was too tough, maybe he should just order filet mignon. And hence he'd gone hunting through the Watchtower until fortune had struck again.

"Mister Batman!" Gauntlet said as he approached the dark-suited vigilante legend. "You're a detective AND not crazy! You have to help me!"

"I'm Batman." Batman replied.

Gauntlet stopped dead, numb with shock.

"…are you GARDENING?"

"I'm Batman." Batman said, dressed up as a gardener and holding a dirty spade in one hand.

Gauntlet slowly began backing away.

"Hey…mister Manhunter? I need a ride home!" Gauntlet yelled, and proceeded to get the hell off the Watchtower as fast as he could.

J'onn, after sending Gauntlet off, went to see what had so disturbed him…and found 'Batman', still in the same position. He sighed to himself.

"Kord, stop playing with the holograms."

Garden Batman disappeared, and a moment later a self-satisfied Ted Kord, aka the Blue Beetle, a legendary practical joker, strolled out from behind a monitor.

"Now THAT'S what I call revenge." He said, smirking.

"Revenge on what?" J'onn calmly asked.

"Oh YOU know. HE'S responsible for that…NOODLE incident."

"What noodle incident would that be?" J'onn replied. "The noodle incident that never happened? The noodle incident that only exists in your mind?"

"Yes, that's the one." Blue Beetle replied.

It was a good thing Gauntlet had left the Watchtower: he probably would have screamed at a pitch that would have broken the protective windows and sent everyone flying into the deadly vacuum.

"What a waste of time! No wonder Didio shot Blue Beetle and replaced The Question with a lesbian!"

Though not, apparently, without one final burn.

* * *

"Okay kids." Beast Boy said into the room the Zap Pack were currently in, he and Terra observing them from above while Starfire stayed in the room with them. "This is another strength test. We're going to gradually increase the gravity in your section of the room: you need to tell us when it starts getting uncomfortable. Remember, stay in your section: that's the only place the gravity's being increased! Starfire's down there to keep an eye on you, but in case of emergencies, the shutdown phrase is 'Scarlet Band'. I repeat, 'Scarlet Band'. But that's JUST for EMERGENCIES. Don't use it as a joke."

"Okay!" Was the reply.

"Okay, get ready, we're starting now." Beast Boy said, as he put his hand on a dial. "Ready…here we go."

Beast Boy slowly turned the dial, putting the gravity at 1.5 strength. The Zap Pack appeared unaffected. Beast Boy dialed it up to 2, twice the normal gravity. Nothing. It was increased to 3. Perhaps testing it, the Zap Pack began running and jumping around, apparently without effort.

"Gee, increasing gravity to train, this has NEVER been done before." Terra remarked sarcastically.

"Go with what works." Beast Boy replied. Terra chuckled, and then glanced at Beast Boy…and then did a double take as she found him transformed into a green King Kai.

"Gar!"

"Yes? You want to hear a joke?" Beast Boy replied.

"…wait, I thought you could only turn into animals."

"Man, insect, a strange combo, close enough!"

"I thought trying to combine aspects caused you pain."

"It does, but not enough that I won't use it to make a joke. Yowtch!" Beast Boy yelped as he turned back to himself, his skin itching and his muscles starting to burn. The gravity was up to 6, and there was still no affect on the Zap Pack, who were still jumping around.

"That was some good serum." Terra said, commenting on the makeshift cure Beast Boy's parents had given him that had unlocked his amazing DNA restructuring abilities.

"Yeah…" Beast Boy said, suddenly seemed a touch depressed, and Terra cursed to herself: despite his light heartedness Gar still had a streak of deep pain at his core in regards to how his life had turned out, and that sometimes he was of the mindset that if he could trade back his abilities and all the adventure it had brought him for the lives of his parents, he'd do it without a thought.

"Sorry Gar." Terra said, patting his shoulder.

"It's okay. At least I know my history…I think they'd be proud. You don't even know where you came from."

"Maybe that's best…" Terra said.

The gravity meter was at 10, but while the kids had stopped bouncing around like monkeys, they did not seem negatively affected, and even waved at Beast Boy and Terra in the command station. The two waved back.

"We're getting into G-levels that would kill human beings." Beast Boy commented.

"Yet they remain unaffected."

"I'm just glad they're on our side."

"You and me both." Terra said. "Maybe this is an omen, Gar. Maybe the pain we suffered will ensure we raise the next generation right."

"That would be a definite comfort." Beast Boy said. "Yes, a comfort…just like a new or used couch from Jump City Furniture Warehouse!"

"…I thought Robin told you not to get that commercial endorsement." Terra said wryly.

"He said in public. He said nothing about getting commissions for recommending my close friends and family to their fine establishment, located just off of the interstate exit. Tell them Beast Boy sent you!"

"You signed something, didn't you?"

"Please just buy a love seat or something. I need to make a sale or else they'll take my thumbs!"

* * *

"This is a piss-poor track record even by my standards. No villain ever thinks of a perfect plan! The reason no one has is why we're still alive! Hmph!" Gauntlet said as he walked the streets of Jump City. "What else…"

Gauntlet passed by a phone both.

"Aha!" Gauntlet said, suddenly getting an idea as he ran into the booth, picked up the phone book, and began paging through it.

Finding to his immense annoyance all three families were listed in the book at the correct addresses.

"ARGH! A pox on all their houses!" Gauntlet cursed, as he stormed off again. "At this rate I'm going to make Martin C. Stone's ancestors billionaires!"

A brief pause.

"You know, that might be the most obscure, roundabout way ever to say I was grasping at straws!" Gauntlet continued as he walked back into view.

Why thank you.

* * *

"Hey, we've kept the kids late, we should send them home…" Robin said as he headed into the Titans' main room.

To find the Zap Pack all sleeping on the couch, worn out after a busy day.

"…heh. I worry we're slave drivers." Robin said as he looked on the sight, as Starfire grinned and Beast Boy looked around furiously for a camera.

"They want to learn. And they have the energy for it." Terra said. "To the point where they crash like this."

"I remember those days." Beast Boy said. "…I kinda miss them."

"There comes a time to put childish things away, B. But not for them, not yet." Robin said. "C'mon, let's get them home."

And so the Titans picked up the Zap Pack and took them to one of the larger cars they kept in the garage. The young heroes slept all the way home.

* * *

The next day, a Saturday, was cloudy and murky, which matched Gauntlet's mood as he sat in the diner, nursing a coffee and trying desperately to think of a new angle. If he couldn't, then he might have to accept the worst: he was wrong. And that possibility left a taste in his mouth so foul that Gauntlet had honestly pondered that he might go back to Ubertron before he came crawling back to the Titans.

No, he couldn't abandon his friends…but really, what else could he do?

"…aha! Okay, it was so obvious! It's the perfect plan! I'll just…come up…with a plan of…goodness…and quality…that isn't suicidal…and involves not being thrown out of places….damn it, I have nothing. I need a plan!" Gauntlet groused.

"Perhaps it can involve you ordering something beyond a coffee." A sour looking waitress said.

"You think I'm stupid enough to EAT here? Here, tip in advance." Gauntlet said, throwing some bills at the woman to get her to leave him alone. "Okay brain, do your stuff….no, brain. No, brain. DAMMIT BRAIN, THIS IS NO TIME TO PLAY GAMES. Nor is any time to imagine naked women…ohhhhh…I mean, ugh, oh brain, what am I going to do with you?" Gauntlet said, rubbing his forehead. He took a sip of his coffee, then immediately regretted it as he'd forgotten how poor it was.

"Nothing going right here…wait, why am I looking for information from other people…when I can just go straight to the source!…wait no, that's probably the LAST place they would hide incriminating evidence…damn it…all right, okay, I have to have one more crazy plan in me. Crazy…plan…" Gauntlet said, as he scribbled on a napkin for a bit and then pulled out his communicator, which also doubled as a phone among its many other features, as he dialed a number.

"Hello, information? I made up a mad lib to devise my next plan. Can you name three nouns, two adjectives, and a place? Uh huh…yeah…" Gauntlet said as he wrote some more on the napkin. "Thanks!"

Gauntlet hung up and looked at the scribbling.

"Okay, so I need to get an atomic 'waste of time', storm the 'you idiot' and the 'extremely immature', and pull off a 'mildly retarded' rescue. In Wichita."

Gauntlet stared at the napkin, blinking.

"…okay, I think I'm out of crazy schemes when this is what I'm reduced to." Gauntlet said.

A thought occurred to him then, though it made him wince.

"This is an evil plan where certain elements were removed in advance, and since he's in a nuthouse they clearly knew how to get rid of him…so…YUCK, what would Savior do?" Gauntlet said. "…I know! Emo emo emo! Emo emo emo emo emo…"

Despite being inside a building, Gauntlet was somehow struck by lightning.

"OW! OKAY, FINE! Now if I can just convince a judge to give me a search warrant…"

Thunder rumbled ominously.

"OH SCREW THIS, I'LL JUST BREAK INTO THEIR HOUSE AND RIFLE THROUGH THEIR WORLDLY GOODS!" Gauntlet yelled, as he stormed out of the diner.

* * *

The Titans hadn't exactly had the best day either.

"KILL THE TITANS! KILL THE TITANS! KILL THE TITANS!" The giant robotic menace thundered over and over as it stomped through the street. The robot was constructed in a very old fashioned way, with a large cap-shaped body made out of some unknown gray metal attacked to four long, spindly legs that ended in large, toed feet. Unfortunately, it also had several metallic tendril arms with giant crushing claws, and several other arms that ended in classic ray-gun like protrusions…protrusions that did indeed fire rays…rays that vaporized the cars and parts of buildings they struck.

But the part that REALLY stood out was the name painted on the main body of the robot.

"HONEY BUN?" Terra said incredulously, looking at the name etched and painted on the side of the body in two-foot tall black letters. "What kind of a lunatic names their robot death machine HONEY BUN?"

"I suspect it involves drugs. Lots of drugs." Robin muttered. "Perhaps an errant grip on the behalf of doctors during birth that lead to cranium damage as well. It still has weapons that can vaporize matter! So be careful! Titans…"

"We got it Robin!" Blast said as he flew past the Titans with his two friends. Robin's eyes went wide again, a common occurrence these days.

"ACK! BLAST, CAREFUL! IT HAS…!"

Robin's warning was barely needed, as three precise shots from the Zap Pack blew apart the molecular disintegrators the machine was armed with, and a moment later Blaze was flying around the machine's legs, tangling up the spindly limbs as Blast swooped around and blasted all the clamp hands in turn before doubling back and punching 'Honey Bun', whose tangled legs caused the blow to make the machine tip over…

Into Bolt's hands, who shot a powerful dose of electricity through the device and fried just about every sensitive part it had, as Bolt lowered the machine to the ground, where it impacted with a low crash, out of commission.

"I think that did it." Bolt said.

"Dumb machine." Blaze said. "Did we do good guys?"

"…yes…yes you did. Hell, that was beyond good. That was marvelous." Robin said, incredulously. The Zap Pack could have just smashed the machine to bits, but instead they'd initiated a planned offensive strike that had disabled the machine in seconds and with virtually no collateral damage.

They were listening. They were learning.

And Robin found himself giving them a short round of applause for it, as did the other Titans. The Zap Pack looked immensely pleased.

"Now, don't let it go to your head." Robin said to Blast as Blaze and Bolt exchanged high-fives with the other Titans.

"We won't." Blast replied. "Who sent this?"

"I don't know. Looks like a refugee from a 50's science fiction movie." Robin said. "We'll have to do some examining. Which is the boring part, guys."

"YUUUUUUUUUCK." The Zap Pack said, showing their displeasure.

"Don't worry, this old fogy will do it. You can go back to the Tower with the other Titans and do something more fun there."

"YAY!"

"Thanks a lot Robin!" Beast Boy said as he patted Robin on the back.

"Eh, you'll just contaminate the scene anyway." Robin said, as the police began to arrive.

* * *

In the end, Robin and the police couldn't find anything in regards to the machine: not even where it came from. Witness reports mostly all said 'it just popped up'. Left with another mystery, Robin had returned to the tower to work on his current ones (and to avoid the media, which had yet to lighten up).

He didn't quite expect the type of training exercise or game his fellows had picked for the Zap Pack this time, which was…a board game.

"I KNEW you'd be lazy if I wasn't around." Robin said as he walked up. "Now just what are you doing?"

"We thought we should teach them how to play Risk! So that perhaps they may learn more of the battle strategies and all." Starfire said.

"So we're playing three on three!" Blaze said.

"And we're winning!" Blast grinned.

"Yeah, they're kicking our butts." Beast Boy said.

"Yes, it is strange. Even being nice…and Friend Terra, did you not describe yourself as a master of the Risk before whom all should bow?" Starfire asked. Terra looked cross.

"That's the thing! There's no such thing as skill at Risk! It's all just freaking stupid luck! What countries you get, how the battles go, whether you get enough soldiers to do anything, it's all luck! LUCK. THAT'S WHAT THESE…MIDGETS HAVE!" Terra pseudo-erupted, as the Zap Pack laughed amongst themselves.

"You'll have to excuse Terra. She's a very poor loser." Robin said. "Keep kicking their butts, I have some stuff to do."

"Awwwwwwwww. But Robin, you're always gone and doing stuff!" Blast complained.

"That is the down side of being a team leader: you have responsibilities you have to do that let your other team members play board games. I'll see what I can do though, okay?"

"Okay!" Was the reply, and Robin headed back to his workroom.

The 'empowerment metal' of the Zap Pack was still a mystery, but Robin's geographic profiling was finally wrapping up: he'd been given some locations in the later cities that seemed to have some potential (after he'd looked up and hacked various details about them), and he'd fed that data back into the remaining parts still being calculated. While not difficult, it was busywork, and hence Robin didn't check his email until some time later.

When he found several emails from the Jump City police department, partly yelling at him for not having his communicator on (An examination later showed a loose wire Robin fixed), and partly telling him to get into the police station.

Someone had screwed up when Robin had been in town earlier interacting with the police and not given him a vital clue.

There had been another attempted kidnapping.

Key word was ATTEMPTED: the child had escaped, and the kidnapper had fled.

* * *

"And this happened right about the time the 'Honey Bun' robot was stomping around?" Robin asked Detective King, the head man on the Jump City kidnappings.

"Roughly. Not as precise as with the electrical creature." King said. He was a tall man in his middle age (and whose baseball cap clashed with his rumbled suit: Robin figured he was definitely bald, as nobody wore a hat any more except to cover something up), whose face was genial but with a sarcastic cant, the face of one who takes little seriously when he doesn't have to and was always ready with a one liner. He handed Robin a file: Robin flipped it open and began reading it.

"To summarize, little 9 year old Cristian was pestering his mother for gum at the Bayview mall when he suddenly felt dizzy, and the next thing he knew he was coming back to his senses and being dragged by someone in the back hallway of said mall: he bit the guy's arm and the guy yelled and then Cristian felt dizzy again and he came back to his senses with his mother holding him and screaming."

"And no one saw this person or suffered the same disruptive effect noted beforehand if they even came close to possibly seeing him." Robin said rhetorically as he paged through the report.

"I don't write 'em, I just have to make sense of 'em."

"And what sense have you made?"

"Since I'm not trained like those Metropolis Special Officers, not much. It sounds like magic to me, but you know what they say about advanced technology…"

"I've had the same thoughts myself." Robin said, as he closed the file. "Tell me, of our enemies, who would YOU suspect?"

"Well, do you have any super pedophiliacs that you know of? Except for that Slade character…he's a bit too chummy with the young ones."

"Slade's not a factor."

"Well, since we're not getting ransom notes, that would be the main motive."

"Thought that myself, but my own studies and examinations have turned up nothing in that vein."

"It's also a bit unlikely that they're doing that slavers angle you suggested. I hate to be crass, but as long as you can get kids for that sort of thing in the third world, the costs and danger of doing it here make it…a poor investment."

"Good point. This Cristian, did he tell you anything specific or interesting?"

"Not really. Kids have trouble remembering what they had for dinner last night, let alone remember details when they're drugged or something…he says that when he struggled free the guy called him a 'little fucker', so obviously we have a crass person doing this…if the kid heard right. Oh yeah, he said the way he was being held was 'painful'. He couldn't elaborate: apparently that meant something specific but he couldn't quite describe it. The rest is the same mess as the previous cases. No eyewitnesses, no evidence, not even for cars."

"……..so why did this attempt fail?" Robin thought out loud.

"Well, if the kid could get away from him while under the effects of the mystery device, then he's probably working alone, and probably pretty weak physically." King said.

"But that's just the case for this most recent one. What happened with all the earlier cases?"

"Hell if I know. The perp didn't give the kid enough Jesus Juice? The kid was a mutant with resistance? Just sloppiness?"

Robin closed his eyes, trying to see if all the pieces finally formed a picture.

"Of course, we could be dealing with a Son of Sam type who's giving us enough clues to keep us on the chase."

"No…this isn't a random target thing, to an extend. These kids are being grabbed for a reason…and I think there's been a change. A time crunch, a last minute switch, some kind of breakdown…it led to this failing…which means…"

"The trail might dry up soon. We might see no more kidnappings, but if we don't nail him fast, those kids are screwed." King said, then winced. "I meant that figuratively, but since I'm leaning towards the paedophile interpretation…"

"I think if it was a paedophile we'd have found bodies. But you're right, in a sense: this is coming to a boil. Combine that with how this last attempt was executed and stuff I've studied and calculated…I'm going to take this back to my workstation. I think it might be the crucial bit of data I need. Assuming it's not all build on a foundation of assumption and guesswork." Robin said as he got up.

"Assumption and guesswork are all we have to go with. At least it keeps us busy until we get some real info." King said.

"I might just provide that. Later, detective." Robin said as he headed out of the police station. King looked amused.

"HEY, YOU'RE NOT DOING IT RIGHT! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WAIT UNTIL MY BACK IS TURNED AND I'M IN MID-SENTENCE!" He called after Robin.

"Maybe next time." Robin replied, and left.

King turned back to his desk and typed at his computer for a second before he realized something, turning back and getting up.

"HEY, YOUR LITTLE FRIEND BROKE INTO THE IRS HEADQUARTERS AND ASSAULTED THEIR LIZARD THING! I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT CARE ABOUT THAT!"

"He's gone man." Another detective said at an adjacent desk.

"Damn. I really wanted to be with him when he heard about it so I could figure out WHY the IRS had a lizard thing."

* * *

Robin, in a bit of foresight, had taken one of Cyborg's modified cars instead of the R-Cycle: that let him set the car to auto-drive back to the Tower, which let him re-read the file on the way in more depth.

By the time the car was pulling up, Robin was sure he was on to something. Now he just had to rattle the tree and see what fell out…

Robin took a back entrance to get into his room, not wanting to speak with his team or the Zap Pack at the moment. He checked his monitor and found they were still playing Risk (and the Zap Pack was still dominating, go figure), and then resumed his work.

The geographic profiling, while virtually finished, had not provided Robin with a big sign and arrow that said 'THE BAD GUYS ARE IN HERE'. It had, however, given a variety of possibilities on where someone could hold so many kids without being spotted. Robin began rapidly typing, adding the data he had just gotten from the last, failed kidnapping. In Robin's mind, the failure of it spoke of a kind of desperation, which meant that wherever the suspects in this case were shacked up, it probably wasn't very far away from Bayview. Combine that with the previously deduced factors and the possibilities from the previous cities…

Forty minutes later, it had all finally come together, and Robin found himself staring at a section of a few square blocks in one of the worse areas of Jump. It was filled with failed businesses and empty warehouses, and police cars rarely went there. The same could be said of several other areas of Jump (the Titans stopped crime, their urban renewal abilities were considerably less), but with all the data Robin had gathered, analyzed, and processed.

Space to hold the kids.

Easy to pass unnoticed, whether it was bringing new victims or supplies in.

Close enough to Bayview to be reached within ten minutes.

………he'd found it. He knew it in his gut. Whatever was going on, the answers lay there.

* * *

"Oh thank god! Maybe we can actually start winning now!" Beast Boy said, mock throwing up his hands as Robin entered.

"Afraid I can't join the game guys. In fact, I have to call it off. We're needed guys, and I'm afraid this is a mission you kids can't come on." Robin said.

"AWWWWWWWWWW! Why not?" Said the kids, once again pretty much in unison.

"Trust me, this is for us and us alone. Training's done for the day. Go home guys. We can pick up tomorrow, or Monday. But we need to do this by ourselves."

"Okay Robin. You would know better." Blast said. Robin affectionately rubbed his hair: they were good kids. He hoped they'd never be exposed to what Robin believed he was about to uncover.

"Catch you later alligator." Bolt said, slamming fists with Beast Boy.

"After awhile, crocodile." Beast Boy replied, actually turning into the reptile as he replied.

"Bye Star." Blaze said, giving the alien a hug that she returned affectionately.

"You can make your own way home?" Robin asked.

"Sha-yah, faster then a speeding bullet!" Blast said, flipping a thumbs up, and then he zapped out of the room.

"Oh no, not another race!" Bolt said, following.

"GUYS! WAIT FOR ME!" Blaze yelled, chasing after the two.

Robin called up the Tower's scanners, but nothing showed up. They must have already flown out of range.

"…so what is the bad thing you have found that we have to stop Robin?" Starfire asked.

"What I'm hoping to find is a large group of children. What I'm dreading to find…I don't want to talk about it. Come on, I'll give a brief explanation in my room, and then we'll head off. And we'd better be prompt. Night's on its way." Robin said, as he headed out, his teammates at his heels.

* * *

Indeed, the sun was just finishing disappearing below the horizon as the figure stealthily made its way down Vitus Street, the street that had the three houses the Zap Pack called home, dressed in black and keeping to the shadows. Along with such things as statue-faking, Rob's mother had taught him more then a few of the more classic ninja tricks, which would definitely prove useful as he made his way to the grouping of three the Zap Pack lived in.

Only one of the houses was brightly lit, and Gauntlet peered in that one first. Sitting at the kitchen table were the two couples and the single mother who professed to be the parents of the Zap Pack: Clayton and Mary Bonaparte, parents to Edgar (Blast), John and Kelly Pickard, parents to Thomas (Bolt), and Donna Rodkey, mother of Tawny (Blaze). They seemed to be doing nothing more then spending a night talking amongst themselves, a casual adult conversation while the women drank tea.

Gauntlet snorted to himself. Who did they think they were fooling? Certainly not him, their lone audience, who they had no idea was there…

…in any case, Gauntlet scoped out the other two houses quickly, but saw no signs of life in them: apparently everyone was in the Bonaparte house. Gauntlet slung into some more shadows and pondered his options. He had a grappling hook, and the chimney looked promising, and he had chloroform in case he was discovered…

…maybe he was going too far with that. And the chimney.

Rob crept around the house, peeking in the windows again. The five were still at the kitchen table, and Rob could see no sign of their three usurper kids. Suddenly struck by inspiration (and the desire to not get covered in soot), Gauntlet decided to try the front door.

It was unlocked.

Rob peeked in through the letter slit, and seeing no one, slowly turned the knob. The hinges made no noise as he opened the door, nor when he closed it.

Crouching low, his shoes wrapped in muffling material, Rob snuck through the hallway, poking around the lower rooms for a moment to scout them out. Much to his annoyance, the stairway to the upstairs floors was right next to the open doorway looking into the kitchen. Rob snuck around from the other side, not wanting to do anything that would put him in the line of sight of the kitchen, even for a second…but that was the only way he could get to the stairs.

Very carefully peeking into the kitchen, Gauntlet traced it with his eyes…which fell upon a phone attached to the wall next to the fridge, behind and to the left of the people from Gauntlet's vantage point. Perfect. Gauntlet pulled out his communicator and pressed several buttons in sequence, as the device sent a silent signal to the phone.

It rang, attracting the attention of the group, and in that moment when they were looking Gauntlet dashed past the open door and up the stairs, going up the length of them with nary a sound.

"Hello?" He could hear Mary answering downstairs. "Hello?…Must have been a crossed wire." Mary said as she hung up. Gauntlet chuckled to himself in a silent semi-malice: they thought they were clever, but compared to them, he was Michael Larson on _Press Your Luck._

Gauntlet slowly crept around the upper floors, first checking the bathroom (on a whim) and then Blast's supposed room (which much to his annoyance, looked like any child's messy room). Finally, he entered the Bonaparte's main bedroom.

Rifling through their drawers produced nothing but clothes. The closet also had nothing: no secret compartments, no hidden doors, no disguised switches that led to torture dungeons, nothing. Annoyed, Gauntlet snuck over to the bedside bureau and began rifling through the papers.

But the bank statements looked normal, the credit reports looked normal, the scraps of paper with scribbled bits of info looked normal, nothing jumped out.

"…but of course, the really good fakes would be in the house." Gauntlet said, trying to cover up the fact that once again, he'd pressed his luck, and once again, he'd hit a Whammy (unlike Mr. Larson, dammit). There was nothing here to suggest any evildoing or treachery. But DAMN it, they couldn't…

The click behind Gauntlet abruptly focused his thoughts.

"Please stand up. I don't want to shoot you. And at this range, I will not miss if you force me to." Clayton's voice said calmly, as Gauntlet's eyes went wide behind his mask. Oh no, he'd failed on one of the crucial rules of sneaking around: NEVER get so focused on one task you neglect your awareness of everything else. But Gauntlet had, and now he had a gun pointed at the back of his head.

"I'm afraid that's nowhere near the safe either." Clayton said as Gauntlet stood up, his hands out to his sides, the bushy-haired father seemingly pleased he had caught his intruder…which struck Rob as strange. Safe? Why would…

"You want me to call the police?" He heard John Pickard ask.

"Please do. I'll keep him here." Clayton replied. Gauntlet narrowed his eyes. From the sound of the hammer, the vague motion he could sense, and Clayton's comment on shooting him earlier, he didn't think Clayton had a handgun. Which probably meant he had a shotgun (he struck Rob as a hunting type). And considering Clayton's comment on range, he probably had the end of the barrel pretty close to Rob. And he thought he had Rob at a standstill…and he hadn't called Rob Gauntlet. Which meant…

He might not know.

And Rob hadn't heard the sounds that would indicate any of the Zap Pack were present.

"You really picked the wrong house, young man." Clayton was saying. "Sorry to tell you, but crime doesn't pay."

"Speak for yourself." Gauntlet replied.

And he spun as the Gauntlet energy ripped out from his stealth costume, pulling itself out from the artifact before it was even done arming, the energy swooping up and slamming the shotgun up and out of Clayton's hands. The gun didn't even go off, Clayton's grip had been so loose, the mistake of someone assuming they had someone cold, as Gauntlet snatched the shotgun out of mid-air and pointed it at its former wielder.

Gauntlet had been trained well by his government agent father too.

"As you don't speak for me." Gauntlet said, looking at Clayton's stunned and horrified face. "Now, maybe you can start speaking the truth."

* * *

The street was virtually abandoned, strewn with rusty cars and shattered, empty newspaper boxes. Most of the streetlights were broken, which meant Robin couldn't see as well as he'd like from where he stood on the roof. He glanced down at the crossroads signs, reading them as St. George and Nicolas. Well, he was at the right place. Now if it was just the RIGHT place…

"Man, how does our city keep managing to produce new areas like this? I keep thinking we've seen them all, and then…" Beast Boy said, looking at the severely dilapidated area.

"Considering how much damage we tend to do in some of our fights, one could see why with all the repairs needed, these areas can't be gentrified." Robin commented, as he pulled out his communicator, calling up a holographic map of the area downloaded from his computer. "We have a couple square miles to search guys, and night's coming fast."

"Where shall we start?" Starfire asked, as Robin peered through the hologram, looking at the many buildings he could see…

And then his communicator began to beep, and he arched an eyebrow.

"What? What is it?" Terra asked.

"It's picking up something…" Robin said, as he called down the map and pressed a few more keys, sending the communicator into a wide range scan.

"How many things can that little thing DO?" Terra asked, impressed.

"When we first started they were basically walkie talkies. But you know Cyborg and his love of tinkering. And he's a genius. So these things now have even more tricks then the best knife the Swiss military could produce." Robin said, as he scanned…and frowned. "Guys, hold up your own communicators, I want to make sure this is accurate."

The Titans did so, as Robin pressed a few more buttons to connect their communicators with his, re-did the scan and looked at the results. His frown deepened.

"That can't be right."

"What cannot be correct, Robin?"

"Assuming I'm reading this right…just about every building in the surrounding area is normal, save THAT one." Robin said, subtly gesturing to an old, large warehouse a few blocks in the distance. "I'm getting trace energy readings that have no business being in a high tech, fully active warehouse, let along that old junkheap. It would be more fitting as the energy output of the Pentagon."

"…I think that answers our question then, doesn't it?" Terra asked. "Shall we go raise hell?"

"Hold on Terra. It's damn strange but doesn't CONFIRM anything…though like you, I am getting a deep sense of foregone conclusion." Robin said. "The energy traces don't indicate a type of output that would be hazardous…but…guys, like you, I have a sense there's a lot more to that warehouse then it seems, but if that's the case, it might have lots of hidden eyes. And teeth. And we don't want to put the kids in danger…" Robin said as he mused. "In fact, they might have already seen us…all right…there are no problems, only solutions…" Robin said as he pressed another series of buttons on the communicator.

"What are you doing now?"

"My computer has maps, blueprints, layouts, and all kinds of structure definitions in it: it can theoretically locate where a certain brick in a certain load got laid…I'm going to call up everything it has on this area and cross-reference it all, see if there's another way in. You can never tell what back doors or old holes that were in these buildings at one point…" Robin said, as data whizzed across his screen, Robin tapping keys and the other Titans looking over his shoulder and trying to keep up.

"I think I have something." Robin said, as another holographic map came up, this one done in wireframe mode that showed the outlines of buildings, streets, and underground tunnels. "All right…if we go down THIS manhole…through this sewer tunnel…we can go through a thin wall HERE and come up in a sub-basement in the very building. Which will hopefully let us bypass any visual or other security and catch the villains off guard, perhaps let us get the kids to safety if they are indeed in the building. Now, we may have been seen, so we're going to split up and pretend to search, then move away from that warehouse and meet at the corner of this intersection. We'll go down into the sewers there and make our way to the building and whatever is hidden inside. Hope for the best and expect the worst team. Let's go."

The team split up, Robin heading down to the street, as he mimed scanning the surrounding buildings…and noted that as he walked closer to the actual suspicious building his programs began breaking up. Great, not only was it putting out weird energies, they were disruptive energies. Robin would have to burn that bridge when he came to it.

Robin acted like he was searching for several more minutes, and then headed down an alleyway to meet with his team.

Never realizing he hadn't been paranoid enough. He had indeed been seen.

And was expected.

* * *

The same could not be said of the current situation Robert Candide found himself in. He had foreseen a lot of possible endings, but him threatening Clayton Bonaparte with his own gun was not one of them.

That didn't stop him from immediately slipping into the gun training his father and to a greater extent his grandmother had drilled into him: firm grip, butt properly placed on the shoulder, finger coiled so he'd squeeze the trigger instead of yank it. It was rather scary how quickly old habits suddenly bloomed after you'd long thought them forgotten. Guess they really did die hard, and as a result Rob looked like he was auditioning for the next _Die Hard._

And Clayton certainly looked like he didn't want to die (hard or otherwise), though he looked calmer then the average person who had a shotgun stuck in his face. But the fear was there, clear as day under his features, as he raised his hands and took a step back, even as the watching women gasped from the doorway at this sudden turn of events.

"What's going…!" John Pickard said as he returned, evidently drawn by the shrieks of horror the women had made when Gauntlet had grabbed the gun. Gauntlet's eyes flicked over to his return.

"AH! DON'T MOVE! STAY RIGHT WHERE I CAN SEE YOU!" Gauntlet snapped, pointing briefly at the four before turning his eyes and putting his hand back on the shotgun. "Now talk."

"Buddy, just be calm, no one has to be hurt, you can take whatever you want, I won't make any trouble…" Clayton said, trying to keep his voice calm and even despite the fact he was clearly scared. Gauntlet goggled at him. They still thought he was a robber? Hadn't they seen how he'd gotten the gun? Had he been that fast?

"This isn't about money, Clayton, though there's definitely going to be trouble, one way or another." Gauntlet said as he pulled off his ninja-esque concealing mask.

Clayton looked like Rob had suddenly transmogrified into Donald Duck. A quick flick of his eyes to the side showed pretty much the same reaction in the other word. Gauntlet grit his teeth: DAMN they were good actors.

"…Gauntlet?" Clayton asked. "What are you doing?"

"Exposing your scheme once and for all. Now talk!" Gauntlet threatened.

"Talk? What scheme?"

"Oh please, you may have everyone else fooled with this Ozzy and Harriet nonsense, but you can't fool me!"

"Gauntlet…what…"

"STOP IT!" Gauntlet snapped, cocking back the hammer, an action that drew moans of fear from the four. "I know why my teammates bought it. They've been exposed to so much negativity that it's tainted their vision. They want to believe in a better, purer age. Both that one exists, and that they can have a hand in spreading it. But despite what a lot of people might think, I know how the world works, and I know the 50's television era was just that. There was no story of a man named Brady, and I'm not buying this story either. So just tell me the truth so we can stop this farce."

"Gauntlet…are you possessed?"

Gauntlet's eyes widened.

"WHAT?"

"This…this can't be you. We've seen you on TV…"

"Don't think that means you know me!" Gauntlet snapped. "I want the truth! And believe me, I can handle it!"

"What truth?" Clayton asked incredulously.

"I don't know the details, but I know your kids are evil and this is all a front for some terrible scheme!"

"…what?" Clayton said, caught between his fear and his utter confusion.

"I did my research! Deeper then Robin did, that's for sure! You have no hard record at the IRS! And considering your little play-acting of a happy family I would assume that family would file tax returns!"

"What…Gauntlet, we weren't born here, none of us have lived here more then two years, it's possible the physical paperwork just hasn't been transferred here due to backlogs or, errors, or…"

"Oh, that's convenient! How about your kids' report cards? They're virtually identical! Almost like they were photocopied!"

"Well…they're in most of the same classes…"

"Oh for the love of…AHA." Gauntlet said as a flash of insight occurred to him. "You love your kids so much, you're such close friends, well, I've seen your house Clayton. And for such loving parents, I notice a deciding lack of baby pictures, family portraits, or anything resembling a picture of your happy kids at all! Not even in HERE!" Gauntlet said, waving around the room with a free arm before he swiftly clamped it back on the shotgun.

"…Gauntlet, please, you've just seen this house, when we moved we left those things with our parents because we didn't want anything irreplaceable to get lost in the move. We haven't had time to back to our old home and pick them up yet…"

"OH ISN'T THAT OPPORTUNE! What happened to your friends, did one suffer a fire at their house and the other have their old home abruptly fall into a sinkhole?"

"Gauntlet…"

"You know what, this seems a bit too rehearsed."

"Rehearsed?"

"A normal non alien zombie from the center of the Earth would need a second or three to think about these things. But you just said them automatically!"

"Gauntlet, you broke into my house and are pointing a gun at my face, I think it could be understandable if I think quick thinking and answering would be beneficial to my situation!"

"OH SHUT UP!" Gauntlet yelled. "Why do you insist on this circus? You think you're going to fool me? NO! You've cost me too much already!"

"…what have we possibly done to you?"

"My friends have lost faith in me! They accepted me for who I was, when a lot of others wouldn't, until you and your rotten kids came along! They told me I essentially nuts! I can't let this go on! I won't let it go on, I'll start believing it myself…" Gauntlet said, as he took one hand from the shotgun again to claw at his hair.

There was motion from the group at the door.

"THAT'S NOT PERMISSION TO MOVE!" Gauntlet snapped, snapping the shotgun in their direction for a split second before turning it back on Clayton. "I'm not going to buy it. I don't have a price."

"Gauntlet…listen. There is no master scheme or evil plan…"

"That's EXACTLY what evil henchmen would say!"

"GAUNTLET. Listen to yourself. You claim everyone is being tricked but you. What exactly are we tricking everyone for?

"That I haven't worked out yet!"

"…Gauntlet…you're certain everyone is being manipulated…has it crossed your mind that one of your enemies is actually manipulating YOU?"

"Well, I have been feeling irritable and out of sorts lately-NO! I'M NOT GOING TO FALL FOR IT! That is exactly what a good evil mastermind would say to allay my fears! STOP!" Gauntlet said, and tightened his finger on the trigger.

"Gauntlet, please. Don't do something you'll regret for the rest of your life."

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO! I've been pushed and pushed all week, by you, by that Steven Colbert guy or whoever, by guards of all shapes and unions, and I am SICK OF GETTING NOTHING FOR MY EFFORTS!"

"All right Gauntlet…if you really are the good guy here, just listen." Clayton said, the tinge of desperation in his voice actually seizing Gauntlet more then calmness or smoothness would. "Let's say you're right. You shoot someone, the plan falls apart, you're vindicated…but what if you're wrong?"

"I…I…I'd be…they'd…they'd throw the book at me and I'd hate myself forever." Rob stammered.

"Not just that. When my kids started idolizing you and your friends, I looked up whatever information I could find on you. You were the only one who was known to actually have a family. There was no mention of what kind of family it was, but I could see in your actions that it was a good one. And I'm sure that with all your experience, you know how badly a poor family, or none at all, can turn out." Clayton said. "Gauntlet, if you shoot me, or us, think about our kids. Think about what it will do to them, with who you are, and how powerful they are. Think of the consequences of such a gamble. Think about how your villains operate…and how that might serve their ends. Don't end up being the last one to realize that the one who's really being tricked is you. I don't want to subject the world to that."

"…no…it's all tricks…you've set up such a thorough scheme surely you'd consider this…I have to find the truth…if I have to pull the trigger I'll…I'll…oh dear Lord what have I done?" Gauntlet said as he lowered the shotgun. "I hate guns, I read everything I could to avoid these situations…how…I don't want to be pushed aside…" Gauntlet said as he sat down on the bed, leaving the gun at his feet as he buried his face in his hands.

Clayton headed over, picking the gun up…

…and unloaded it, putting the shells on a nearby cabinet before leaning the gun next to it.

"I'm calling the police." John said, leaving with a sour look on his face.

"Wait John you…Kelly?" Clayton asked.

"I'll handle it." Kelly said, as she headed after her husband. Clayton gestured to his wife and Donna, and they nodded and left the doorway, the crisis seemingly averted as Gauntlet agonized on the bed.

"What am I doing…what have I become…" Gauntlet mumbled to himself. He barely noticed Clayton sitting down next to him.

"It's all right kid. I understand better then you might realize. These past few months, I've had to learn a lot real fast about the crazy world you inhabit. I've heard about the incredibly complex schemes your ancestors and your fellows are often tangled up in, and I can see how you'd see a shadow of one in my family and my friends." Clayton said.

"It's not just that…it's just that…if your kids are on the level, then what's my purpose?" Gauntlet said.

"Hey, relax, they're not going to force you out…"

"Even if that's the case, you've seen what they've done! They took one of my mortal enemies, who trashed my whole team, and beat him within seconds! They've put most of our rogues gallery in jail or driven them underground! The only one who are even trying any more are the rookies, the fools, and the mindless! And they're kids! What happens when they get older? What happens after the Titans train them for a few years? No supervillain with a brain will want to step foot in this city!"

"…isn't that a good thing?"

"Yes…but no! I always wanted to be a superhero because of the crazy stuff! Fighting Dr. Devastating, or The Crimson Oblivion, or hell, even The Albino Avenger, you know, saving the day! I'm not like Robin, I don't have a mind or a disposition for human on human crime, not even in the form some of my father's fellow workers have to approach their jobs! I wanted to do the FUN things! But with your kids…there won't be any reason for me to be around. I can't go back to Ubertron, the problem's even worse there. And I can't just go off alone…after being with the Titans, it would just be freaking lonely. Your kids…they'll make me obsolete. I don't want to be obsolete: I refuse to be the Betamax of superheroes!"

Clayton sighed.

"Rob, I think that what you need to understand is that you seemed to have confused the means with the goal. You really want to be out of a job some day. It's all fun and games for you, but lots of people get hurt in the process."

"I know. It's just…it made me feel special."

"Feeling special…I know what you mean. When I was your age, I played football. I was good at it too, could have been a professional. But like many others, I suffered a severe knee injury and that ended my dreams. After losing that, I spent the next several years almost in a daze. Life didn't seem to be worth living after that. When I was good at the game, I seemed special, and it made life seem grand. Take it away, it seemed like there was no real reason to go on. But eventually I learned there's more to life then that, no matter how you may be 'special'." Clayton said. "Being special's a lot of things, but it's not something you can pick up and play with until you're bored, like it's a toy. You confront us because you think the strangeness surrounding our children, which made them 'special', indicates a trick with malicious intentions. What if the same had been applied to you Gauntlet? What if someone had thought you being randomly selected by some ancient sorcerer-deity to wield your weapon wasn't acceptable, that you and your family had to be hurt for it? It's dangerous thinking, in all aspects, and even if you're not being manipulated, you see where it led you."

"……………….But I was so sure…" Gauntlet said quietly.

"Everyone thought the world was flat once Gauntlet. That didn't make it flat."

Gauntlet was silent.

"I'm sorry." Gauntlet said. "I could have done a terrible thing."

"Well, considering what you superheroes tend to go through, I won't hold it against you." Clayton said, patting Gauntlet on the back.

"Yeah, it's not often we find someone who takes the time to research and understand us." Gauntlet said. "Most people think we're menaces or gods who can fix any problem with a wave of our hands. People don't realize the pain we often go through, the paranoia and confusion that can overwhelm us. Even I, who grew up right in the center of such a madhouse, have trouble with it. I suppose it explains why I thought your kids were evil. Why this was all a plot. But it doesn't explain why you just gave me the wrong origin story."

Clayton's expression, a comforting look, suddenly froze.

"…what?"

Gauntlet glanced sideways at Clayton.

"The official origin story, to anyone who looks, is that my power is a mutation. If anyone asks, I always give a wacky foundation like I was bitten by a radioactive armoire. Only my family and my closest friends know how I really got my powers, and they keep quiet. So in order to know the truth, you'd have to have more information then Google and a fan page. Highly protected, classified information, which NO ONE, save a certain few, should know." Gauntlet said, as his eyes narrowed. "You wanna tell me how you came across the real McCoy? Clay?"

Clayton's face remained a frozen mask.

As Gauntlet snapped his arm up behind him, seizing the hand holding the butcher knife at the wrist, the knife that was about to plunge right into his back, held by Kelly Pickard, whose face was a mask of shock, so certain Gauntlet had no idea she'd snuck around him via a hidden door, only to be proven wrong moments before the knife would have plunged into the base of Gauntlet's shoulders.

"You jumped the gun. I might have bought another excuse." Gauntlet said, still amazingly calm. "For a moment, you made me believe. Damn you for that."

And with that, the brilliant façade finally disappeared, as Clayton's face deepened into a mask of intensity, and then he punched at Gauntlet, who ducked backwards, still holding Kelly's wrist, as he snapped up his leg and kicked Clayton in the chest as hard as he could, his Gauntlet-magic enhanced strength throwing Clayton across the room, where he crashed into the chest of drawers with a mighty crunch, as Gauntlet let go of Kelly's wrist and rolled/spun off the bed, twisting to his feet as Kelly recovered and stabbed at him with a scream.

Gauntlet intercepted the blade with his armored arm, and then slashed his hand back in a thundering backhand, disarming Kelly and smashing her mightily across the face, throwing her down onto the bed.

She did not stay down. She was not even stunned.

Instead, she reared back up immediately, glaring at Gauntlet…the right side of her face shredded, sparks emitting from the damaged mechanisms and gears that now stood exposed.

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! YOU'RE GODDAMN ROBOTS! IT IS ALL A MASTER EVIL SCHEME!" Gauntlet trumpeted. "I WAS RIGHT! IN YOUR FACE LOGIC AND COMMON SENSE!"

And then a metal fist smashed into Gauntlet's jaw and sent him flying, his body crashing back first against the wall and nearly going through it.

"You could still use some of it." Clayton said, his fist now covered in interlaced plates of metal, as he looked over at his companion 'AHDD-CM' (Artificial Human Drone Decoy-Combat Model), dubbed Kelly Pickard

"Impossible! How could the master have given us such incorrect information at such a crucial time! It's exposed us!" Kelly cursed as she ripped the torn false skin from the side of her face.

"The plan is almost complete, even the master is not infallible." Clayton replied, as the clothing on his body shredded, the skin ripping apart as reinforced armor plating snapped up and locked over his body, encasing him in a deadly suit of armor as small, thick blades snapped out onto his knuckle.

"Master, huh? Well, tell your master Oliver Cromwell I'll be seeing him real soon, and when I do, my victory dance will put everything ever displayed in the NFL to shame!" Gauntlet yelled as he pulled himself out of the wall.

"We have our orders. Kill him." Clayton said.

"Too bad. He was amusing." Kelly said, as her hand split apart and reformed into a whirling buzzsaw as she jumped off the bed and lunged at Gauntlet.

Gauntlet backhanded her across the room, his yellow energy blunting the whirring blade…as Clayton charged and crashed into Gauntlet, this time smashing him through the wall and into the next room, a spare bedroom, as Gauntlet fell to the floor and Clayton crashed down on him.

"It's a pity, young man! I rather liked you!" Clayton snapped as he pistoned down a punch. It crashed through the floor as Gauntlet snapped his head to the side.

"I got enough friends!" Gauntlet snarled back, as he slashed out his arm, the yellow Gauntlet energy tearing across Clayton's chest and making the robot fake recoil, which let Gauntlet nail him with a powerful bludgeon blow, knocking him off Gauntlet. Gauntlet sprang to his feet like a cat, Clayton almost as quick as he charged again, but this time Gauntlet was ready, as he snapped out his energy construct and seized Clayton, whirling him around and slamming him against the outer wall with a crash, then whirling and hurling him out through the door to the room and the walls beyond.

As Kelly emerged from the hole from the room where this had started…and tossed two objects into the second room. They clattered across the floor at Gauntlet's feet.

Grenades.

"Oh poopy." Gauntlet said, and dove away, the yellow energy wrapping around him as they exploded, hurling Gauntlet at an angle into the wall of the room that separated it from the hallway, the teenager crashing through it and bleeding off enough momentum so he bounced off the next wall, crashing down into the hallway. He coughed and forced himself up: he was right, it was all an act, he had to get word…

And then he saw Mary Bonaparte at the other end of the hallway, near where the battle had started. Or rather, the robot that had professed to be a woman named Mary Bonaparte, if the current trend held.

Gauntlet glared daggers at her. She just looked rather…sad.

"I wish it hadn't had to happen this way, child. I really do." Mary said.

As her dress split open on her chest, as the mechanisms whirred and shifted, exposing a large, smooth barrel.

"Oh no." Gauntlet said.

With a roaring hiss, a rocket blasted out from the hidden launcher, burning down the hallway and striking the thickest shield Gauntlet could make, the whole hallway exploding in fire and shrapnel as the teenager was hurled backwards, crashing through the staircase and thudding down onto the lower floor as fiery debris rained down after him.

"All right…who else wants a piece…" Gauntlet babbled as he got up, even as he seized his tore and shredded black sneaking suit and yanked it off so it wouldn't get caught on anything.

"In terms of slang, I happen to have a rather large one." Came an unseen reply, and then another whirring noise sounded in Gauntlet's ears. Gauntlet didn't even wait for any kind of confirmation: he threw himself behind another shield.

Bullets began exploding against it, the air filling with the thundering chatter-roar of a gatling gun, as Gauntlet struggled against the onslaught, the feedback like a painful tapping in his head.

After several seconds it ceased, and Gauntlet finally peered from around the shield as John Pickard, looking as serious and nasty as any misguided member of the Black Panthers ever had, lowered an arm that had become a rotary cannon of death. They were all robots, and they were all armed.

"You should have believed the fiction, Gauntlet. It would have made it so much easier, all around." John said, as he raised his other arm and it began to transform.

Gauntlet seized the nearest piece of furniture, a now rather aired-out couch, and hurled it at John Pickard, but the AHDD-CM reacted with insane speed, ducking under the settee as it flew over his head, and even as it crashed against the wall behind him John straightened back up, as his arm finished transforming.

"Always did do things the hard way." Gauntlet replied, and ducked behind his shield once more.

An explosive hollow sucking noise filled the room as John ignited his flamethrower, sweeping it across the house and bathing everything in flaming chemicals, setting everything in sight on fire. Gauntlet was protected, but he still felt the intense heat, as well as found it difficult to breath…and that was before John focused the intense blast of flame on him.

"Ack, blergh…not cool…literally!" Gauntlet rasped, and hurled himself to the side as best he could while still protecting himself from the deadly 'dragonsbreath', rolling and coming up behind a flaming love seat. Tendrils of yellow power flowed out and grabbed it, once again hurling it at John: this time he didn't have time to dodge, as the fiery piece of furniture slammed him into the wall.

Gauntlet didn't hang around, as he dove into the kitchen, slipped a bit, and then ran for the back door.

As Clayton smashed through the wall to his left and slammed into him, tackling him into the stove with a metallic crash. Gauntlet snarled and once again squirmed out of the way as Clayton's fist slammed down, smashing right through the stove as Gauntlet slipped around him, his yellow power sweeping all the forgotten knick-knacks off the table as other tendrils seized up the heavy wood stand. As Clayton yanked his fist out of the stove, Gauntlet spun and let him have it, smashing the heavy wood into pieces as he smashed it against the robot, as Clayton was hurled back first into the fridge, crushing it inward. Gauntlet leapt after him and used a yellow energy fist to smash him even further in, before seizing the fridge and yanking it forward, sending Clayton tumbling to the floor with the heavy appliance on top of him, as Gauntlet then raised his hands, laced them together, wrapped them in his power, and smashed his axe-handle down on the fridge as hard as he could, smashing it through the floor and sending both domestic device and AHDD-CM tumbling into the basement.

Movement caught his eye, and he saw there were two entrances into the kitchen: the one he'd snuck past earlier and just gone through, and another at the other end of the room…where Donna Rodkey was standing.

As her eyes glowed.

Gauntlet began forming another shield.

As the white beams blasted from her eyes, the rays going right through Gauntlet's energy construct, and he screamed as they glanced his shoulder, burning off several layers of skin as the boy recoiled and fell to one knee, clutching his wound Damn it, a laser weapon. Lasers were made of light, and since Gauntlet could see through his own power, it couldn't block the light-based weapon: if it hadn't been for the partial armor on his shoulder from his namesake, it might have sliced his arm clean off.

"I won't let you hurt my daughter!" Donna snapped as she came into the kitchen, Gauntlet whipping up his head to look at her.

"…you stupid robot! You don't have a daughter! This is all a scheme of your master Moriarty! Your biological connection doesn't exist!"

"NOT TO ME!" Donna shrieked, as her eyes began lighting up again.

Light moved at 182,000 miles a second: dodging it was pretty much impossible. Fortunately, Donna needed a few moments to charge her weapon, and she couldn't change her aim when she started.

Which is what Gauntlet used to dodge it this time, as he dove to the side through the hole Clayton had made when he'd come charging in, the blast zapping past his back as he crashed and rolled through the mess of what had once been the stairs…

And as he jumped to his feet, found Kelly Pickard waiting for him.

"Hello." She declared, and slashed her buzzsaw weapon at Gauntlet, who recoiled away. Kelly followed, slashing repeatedly at Gauntlet with the cutting saw and with her other hand, the skin having split on the fingers to reveal some kind of taser weapon crackling with electricity, Gauntlet trying to recover from the wound he'd taken which had surprised him and trying to get his Gauntlet energy back 'online'…

Too late, as Kelly finally got around his defenses, cutting through his t-shirt and slicing a bloody line across his stomach, and even as Gauntlet yelled at the sudden pain Donna emerged from the kitchen entrance and fired, her laser weapon aiming for Gauntlet's right leg. She missed, again, but once again, not entirely, as the deadly beam vaporized a chunk of epidermis from Gauntlet's calf and sent pain exploding through the limb as he stumbled and went down on his knees again.

"How did you ever end up on the Titans?" Kelly taunted, as she raised her whirring buzzsaw.

And was seized by yellow power.

"LIKE THIS!" Gauntlet yelled, as he threw Kelly into Donna, sending them both sprawling on the floor. He had really wanted to crush Kelly like an egg, but in the time he did that, Donna would probably have succeeded in putting a pair of neat holes in him.

This was going badly: he'd completely underestimated the possibilities of him being right in his assessment. He was outnumbered five to one, already injured, and the whole place was already on fire (and why the hell could he still see? The smoke should have been an utter black, suffocating fog by now, not minimal and faint like in the movies! Did this damn house have some kind of bizzaro filtering system? Had certain laws of physics gone on vacation again? Was he dreaming? The last one would suck…)

"OW!" Gauntlet yelled as he pinched himself. Well, not dreaming. Bizzaro-fire aside, this whole situation was a mess, really bad, and getting worse.

As much as he hated it, retreat would be best.

"What's that that Nutbar would say? It's not running away, it's advancing in another direction…!" Gauntlet yelled as he borrowed another frequent happenstance of 'Nutbar' and ran for the nearest window, leaping…

The glass broke, but Gauntlet didn't find the exit he expected, as he immediately bounced off an invisible something or other and found himself crashing down onto the floor again.

"Oh come on, what is this, prevention of gimmick infringement!?" Gauntlet cursed.

"No, just a repelling force field tuned to biological matter." John said, once again before Gauntlet as he got up. "Was activated as soon as the error came about. There is no escape Gauntlet."

"All right then buddy, I guess I'll have to send you back to your master Von Doom…" Gauntlet started, until John rudely interrupted him by blasting him with his flamethrower again, pinning Gauntlet against the wall and force field as he hid behind another yellow barrier. But the protection wasn't absolute, as Gauntlet retched, trying to get some proper air in his lungs…

As the flames abruptly lessened and then sputtered. Gauntlet, surprised, lowered his shield, even as John looked at his weapon, which was now only spitting fire out in brief, short-range bursts instead of a concentrated stream. He'd run out of fuel.

"Oops. Guess your master Dr. Moreau wasn't as quite up on fuel efficiency as he was on evil schemes." Gauntlet said.

His flamethrower indeed out of fuel, John leveled his gatling arm at Gauntlet instead, once more spraying him with bullets, but on a sudden certainty, Gauntlet forced himself to his feet and pressed forward, as the bullets slammed against his shield…and suddenly petered out as the ammo ran dry there as well.

"Should watch your counters." Gauntlet said, and charged.

As mechanical hands erupted from the floor, seizing Gauntlet's ankles and yanking him down through the ground in a spray of splintered wood

"Should watch your step." John countered, even as in the basement Clayton slammed Gauntlet on the ground and raised a foot to stomp on him. Gauntlet rolled out of the way and lashed out, his Gauntlet energy tearing more gashes across Clayton's chest and torso. Flipping to his feet, Gauntlet's eyes widened as Clayton's fist suddenly lanced out of its wrist, firing out on a metal extension that slammed into Gauntlet's chest and knocked the wind out of him as he was smashed up against the basement wall. Clayton's arm retracted as he charged, smashing Gauntlet anew up against the wall. Gauntlet gasped, and then retaliated, his yellow energy exploding from his arm in a generic eruption of power that went smashing into Clayton and sent him staggering back, and then Gauntlet went low, smashing a fist into Clayton's knee and sending him down on the other.

And then Clayton's jaw went flying off as Gauntlet punched him across the face as hard as he could. Clayton reeled from the devastating blow, as Gauntlet took a few steps back, laced his hands together again, ran two steps and then jumped, leaping up to come down on Clayton with a disabling axe handle blow again…

As Clayton's left hand seized Gauntlet's arms, stopping the blow dead with a powerful whine of inner turbines, and then Clayton grabbed Gauntlet with his other hand, lifted him up, and sent Gauntlet flying skyward on his extending arm, smashing him up through the floor again. Gauntlet went spinning off the blow and hit the ground with a dull crunch, landing on some fiery debris that he quickly rolled off with a yell, slapping at himself…

As Kelly loomed out of the smoke and punched him with her electrified hand, a powerful shock slamming through Gauntlet and sending him flying like a blow, as he smashed through another wall and came to rest as a crumpled heap inside the ruins of the main floor's bathroom.

"Should watch your back also." John commented, his left arm having turned back to normal as he replaced the fuel canister in his flamethrower arm: that done, he re-transformed his left arm into his machine gun weapon. Donna emerged from the fiery surroundings as well, as did Mary, having damaged herself somewhat with her initial too-close rocket launch and having only recovered sufficiently now. Clayon pulled himself out from the basement, a battered wreck from having gone toe to toe with the teenager.

"Want me to gib him?" Kelly asked, producing two more grenades.

"No, only Donna has proven flawless in breaching his defenses. She must do it." Clayton said, his lacking a jaw not seemingly affecting his ability to speak. Kelly silently tucked the grenades into the belt of her torn jeans as Donna headed for Gauntlet.

"Once he is dead, the master tells us to join him. It should be done by the time we arrive." Clayton was saying, even as Donna approached Gauntlet, who was feebly trying to crawl away through the wrecked room he'd crashed through.

"You may as well stop: there is no escape." Donna said, and Gauntlet did indeed stop moving. "It was not supposed to end this way Gauntlet. But I have no choice: I have my orders."

"Hey, don't sweat it." Gauntlet said, as Donna's eyes began to light up.

As Gauntlet rolled over.

"You're the one who has to look at yourself in the MIRROR!" Gauntlet snapped, as he held out the reflective glass that had ended up on the ground when Gauntlet had wrecked the room, remarkably unbroken, as Gauntlet had crawled over to it, hiding it under himself until the last second.

As Donna fired her lasers.

And the beams struck the mirror, nearly burning through before it was reflected, the beams lancing back and piercing through Donna's chest, the robot's eyes going wide in surprise.

As Gauntlet slashed out with his weapon, chopping off Donna's legs at the knees, and as she collapsed to the ground Gauntlet leapt to his feet with a roar and reached out with his Gauntlet power, grabbing a nearby flaming wall and ripping a huge chunk of it out as he hurled it at the remaining four, who were just as surprised as Donna and had to scatter for cover.

"Tawny…" Donna said, her eyes still wide from where she lay on the ground, her body seizing and shaking from the damage. "Tawny…"

"…I'm sorry." Gauntlet said.

And with a quick reach and grasp with his energy, Gauntlet crushed Donna's head, shutting her down.

"I'm so sorry." Gauntlet said, removing his energy. A new, colder anger began to creep through him. Whoever was behind this, he hadn't skimped on the setup…to the point where Gauntlet had lost any and all joy at being right and striking down the tools of the person who'd driven a wedge between him and the Titans. He just wanted to find the bastard and give him a righteous ass kicking.

But before he did that…

"All right, if this is the way it's going to be, if you won't follow the laws of robotics then let me introduce you to the law of the jungle!" Gauntlet snapped as he stalked forward, as John finally got up, saw Gauntlet coming, and aimed his flamethrower.

Which is exactly what Gauntlet wanted, as he knelt and threw up a shield.

"Burn boy!" John snapped as he once again bathed Gauntlet in fire.

"YOU FIRST!" Gauntlet yelled.

As his yellow shield contracted and then fired a spear from its middle, the energy piercing through the fire and all the way back to John.

As it slammed through his arm, smashing the flamethrower and puncturing the new tank of fuel, as John's eyes went wide.

And then his arm exploded, the fuel igniting all at once, and a moment later John's innards exploded in turn, fried and overloaded by the blast. His body afire, it lurched and collapsed against a wall.

"Damn! Mary, quick, another rocket…!" Clayton ordered, as Gauntlet dashed across the room. Mary's eyes found them, the matronly gaze gone, replaced only with an intense glare, as her weapon began to arm…

As Gauntlet grabbed up John's flaming body, sending yellow energy tentacles into the gatling gun, and as the rocket began to emerge prior to arming Gauntlet yanked up the body and found the inner trigger as he lined up and pressed it, opening fire on Mary with it, the bullets slamming into her as her eyes widened…

And then the rocket blew, the explosion knocking Clayton down even as it briefly ignited in such a way that Mary was blasted backwards out through the wall and out of the house, passing through the shield before she crashed into the house that had belonged to the false and 'deceased' Donna Rodkey and exploded, the ordnance within her blowing the whole house apart like it was made of cards.

Gauntlet dumped the flaming body of John on the ground, as he suddenly realized how horrendously bad the idea of firing the machine gun John had had was: it could have very well exploded in his face…

"Fortunate son." Kelly's voice said behind him.

And then the battle robot was suddenly on his shoulders, showing insane grace and ability…as she jammed her electrified fingers down on the unarmored portion of Gauntlet's right collarbone.

It felt more like fire than electricity, as the attack worsened the burn Gauntlet had already suffered there even as the electrical power jolted through Gauntlet's body, once again throwing him to the ground with a scream. Snarling, Gauntlet tried to get up…and nearly fell on his face again as his right arm failed to hold his weight.

"Oh damn…" Gauntlet cursed, as he pushed himself up again, looking at his right arm, which was not precisely limp, but was clearly disabled. Gauntlet found he could barely move the limb or make a fist, the zap having apparently screwed up his nervous system. Gauntlet tried to will his artifact's energy to come, to serve as a replacement arm or at least as a sling, but all that came out were some sluggish, dull tendrils that wouldn't do anyone any good.

Gauntlet fully regained his feet and turned around…

As Kelly slashed out with her buzzsaw. Gauntlet tried to dodge, but his still numbed arm screwed it up, and the blade sliced across his left cheek, blood exploding from the wound as Gauntlet fell to the ground again.

"But your luck's run out." Kelly said, as Gauntlet rolled over and struggled back up and furiously tried to get his own bioelectric system back on track…even as he heard the sound of the whirring blade behind him.

"Maybe YOUR master should have built you better if that's all it takes." Kelly said, raising the buzzsaw and then slashing down.

As Gauntlet snapped to the side and seized Kelly's arm by the wrist again.

"I have latent abilities too." Gauntlet retorted, and put every bit of the Gauntlet's innate magical energy into his strength as he twisted and yanked the buzzsaw up, ramming it under Kelly's chin and sawing up into her head as her eyes went wide and then exploded outward in a shower of delicate circuitry.

"And tell your master Torv Coolguy he has his own better mousetrap to start on." Gauntlet said as he leaned down, grabbed the grenades on Kelly's belt, and yanked out both the pins before he shoved her away and dove for cover.

The explosion as the robot was destroyed pelted his back with stinging shrapnel, and Gauntlet hissed through his teeth as he pushed himself up, missing his shield already…

As Clayton himself finally got up.

The two regarded each other from across the burning room, the house now completely engulfed in flames, parts of the upper floors beginning to collapse down into the main room around the two. Why Gauntlet wasn't choking to death on smoke, he had no idea.

And he didn't care: he had one obstacle left, as he raised his left arm, his right arm still feeling dull and blunted, faced his palm away from Clayton, and held up all his fingers. Which he then ticked down, starting with his thumb, then his pinkie, then his primary and ring fingers, leaving just one which he waved at Clayton, before gesturing with the hand.

Clayton charged.

Gauntlet dodged aside, kicking Clayton in the same knee he'd damaged before, and as Clayton went down on said knee Rob smashed him in the side of the head as hard as he could with his still-recovering Gauntlet arm. Not hard enough, as Clayton backhanded him, sending him crashing up against a burning wall, and then rose and charged into him. Gauntlet pushed off the wall and met him, using every bit of strength and yellow energy he could manage to grapple with him. Sparks shot from the deep gashes and tears Gauntlet had made in Clayton's chest, but the weakened state of the teenager was evidence as the two wrestled briefly across the room before Clayton began to overpower Gauntlet…

As the strongest threads of power Rob could muster clawed up Clayton's face and attacked his right eye, crushing the mechanical orb inward. Clayton yelled at the injury…and then slammed his head forward, ramming it into Gauntlet's. Stars exploded in Gauntlet's vision as he lost his grip…as Clayton punched him across the face, sending more dark spots blasting across Gauntlet's eyes. And those were just the warm up blows to the mighty uppercut Clayton then blasted Gauntlet with, his bladed knuckles cutting open Gauntlet's chin as he flew up and then crashed on the ground.

His communicator, finally loosened from his pants, clattered across the floor.

Clayton regarded it, and then picked it up as he walked over to Gauntlet, who was still trying to clear the cobwebs.

Clayton kneeling down and clamping a hand around his throat had the useful effect of doing so, with the far graver effect of cutting off his air.

"I know you think I'm just some kind of heartless automaton, incapable of anything but what I'm commanded, but that is not true Gauntlet. To fully carry out his plan, the master programmed us far better then that. So you may not believe me when I say I know what this means, Gauntlet…" Clayton said, indicating the communicator he held before Gauntlet. "But I do. I regret that this charade faltered when it did, and I regret that it had no other result in this. Rest now. Your time to carry the burden of a hero is done."

"Rest…screw…you!" Gauntlet somehow managed to rasp: apparently he wasn't being choked firmly enough to prevent some level of speech (though that was hardly a comfort to his screaming lungs). "You have no right to hold that! You have no idea what it means! It's more then…a communicator! It's a badge of honor…a bond…a deeper meaning then whatever falseness you spew! And…it plays MP4's, doesn't roam, hello floor, make me a sammich!"

And the communicator suddenly began beeping rapidly and frantically, drawing Clayton's eyes to it…as Gauntlet, his last six words a code phrase primed to his voice, used every last bit of strength he had left to yank his right arm up, yellow tendrils grabbing Clayton's arm and yanking it up and off Rob's throat as his fingers seized the device from Clayton.

"Communicator. Symbol. Bomb." Gauntlet said.

And he hammered the communicator into one of the gashes he'd made in Clayton's chest, shoving it in as deeply as he could as he got a leg up, shoved Clayton up and away from him, and then rolled over and dove forward as much as he could as Clayton's lone eye filled with shock.

And then the bomb exploded, blasting and tearing through Clayton…but he did not get blown apart, he stayed in one piece, even as fire and more sparks exploded from his wounds and a dozen new ones, as Rob rolled over, gazing blearily at the robot as he held his throat and sucked in air, as Clayton looked down at himself, and then at Rob, as he tried to take a step, his arm out…

And then he seized, another shower of sparks flying from him, and then he collapsed to his knees, the light dying in his lone eye as several rivers of liquid trickled from his body. Whatever it was, it was clearly flammable, as the flames caught it and raced back to Clayton, igniting his metal form and turning him into a burning effigy.

Gauntlet slowly got up. Assumingly, with the robots destroyed, the force field was down.

"Now…tell your master, Doctor Wily…or James Cameron…oh forget it." Gauntlet said, and turned and kicked the front door open, fleeing out of the house (the force field was indeed now down) as burning wood beams and wreckage collapsed around Clayton, consuming the house of lies he'd tried so hard for Gauntlet to swallow.

* * *

It took a little bit longer for the police and fire trucks to arrive, and they spent some time putting out the fires as the police tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

Gauntlet, surprisingly, did not immediately run to the police and begin declaring his magnificent victory. Instead, he waited in the shadows until the Bonaparte house, which had collapsed, was reduced to soaked, smoldering wreckage…and then he headed over and walked through the mess as he proceeded to start digging through it.

"…what they…HEY! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" A firefighter yelled.

"Official hero business." Gauntlet replied, still digging. The firefighter motioned to the police, and several ran over.

"Hey, what…you? What are you doing?" Detective King said as Gauntlet kept sifting through the wreckage…

And found it.

"Just looking for…my lunchbox." Gauntlet said as he pulled out Clayton's robotic head, fire damaged but still clearly identifiable. "It's based on the Terminator after getting melted. It's all the rage at Hot Topic." Gauntlet quipped, though all the normal good humor in his voice was gone.

"Now wait just a minute…"

"Any of you got a phone? Hey, thanks." Gauntlet said as his energy snatched the cell phone clipped at Detective King's belt and began dialing.

"Hold it, hold it! You're Gauntlet!" King said, chasing after the still walking Rob.

"Why thank you for noticing!" Gauntlet retorted, as he finished dialing and put the phone to his ear.

"You've been running all over town causing trouble, now I find you here, what the hell did you do, start a war…?"

"Quiet." Gauntlet said, as he listened to the phone ring…and then break into a low hiss. "Damn it. Must be out of range or in the subway or…damn, I sure hope not. Here." Gauntlet said, tossing the phone back to Detective King, who fumbled with it.

"Titan business, I need to borrow this." Gauntlet said as he stepped up to the nearest police car, opened the door, and tossed Clayton's head into the side seat before sitting down and closing the door.

"Hey hey, stop! Get out of the car!" King ordered as he stepped up to the door, gun drawn, several other officers backing him up.

Gauntlet glared at them.

"Officer, I'll be happy to explain this to you in detail. But right now I need to get to my friends and warn them about something that could easily kill us all a dozen times over. So the only way you're going to stop me is shooting me. So go ahead." Gauntlet said, as he turned the key, starting the engine.

"…geez." King said, lowering his gun as Gauntlet drove off. "OKAY FINE! BUT YOU'D BETTER HAVE AN EXPLANATION ABOUT THE LIZARD MAN!"

"YOUR GUESS IS AS GOOD AS MINE ON THAT ONE!" Rob called back, his voice echoing.

Awman…" King commented as he watched the car turn a corner and disappear. "Kids."

* * *

The murky weather that had loomed all day had finally broken into a full-on thunderstorm when Gauntlet arrived at the Tower. Finding virtually all the lights in the building out did not give him a good feeling, but then again, maybe Robin was trying to save on the electrical bill again.

At least the security still let him in. Then again, due to a glitch Cyborg just couldn't seem to fix, it let in anyone with a handprint.

"Guys! You wanted solid, tangible proof? I got it!" Gauntlet said as he marched into the main room, wiping water from his hair. "LOOK! The disembodied head of Clayton…which isn't murder! HE WAS A ROBOT!" Gauntlet yelled.

No answers came to him: the room was dimly lit and consumed with shadows.

"Damn it, where'd they go…this is a bad time…" Gauntlet said, as he stalked across the room. "Where's that light switch…"

Lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the room before plunging it into semi-darkness again.

"I swear, if I have to fight that Wicked Scary thing I am so out of here…" Gauntlet said as he found the closet he was certain the light switches were in and opened the door.

As lightning flashed, revealing a massive shadowy figure inside.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Gauntlet yelped, leaping back.

But the figure didn't move, and even in the deep shadow Gauntlet recognized it.

"Oh, it's that robot double of Cyborg. They must have stuck it in here." Gauntlet said, as he headed back to the closet.

"Wachoo talkin' 'bout Willis?" Cyborg suddenly said.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gauntlet screamed, as the 'robot double' turned out to be the real deal as he chuckled, reaching to his side.

"Gotcha Rob. Do I win a prize?" Cyborg said.

"What the hell! Victor! What are you doing in the closet!?"

"I just got home, less then an hour ago. But no one's here! So I figured, hey, no distress signals, they must be at a movie or something, so I decided to do a quick recharge using the tower's power system." Cyborg said, as he unplugged himself from several thick wires. The lights all abruptly blared on, Cyborg no longer diverting the energy for himself.

"…why are you standing in the closet to do that?"

"Inspecting the coat hangers for defects." Cyborg said. "So, what's I miss? That…that is a man's head." Cyborg said, as he finally saw the grisly content of one of Rob's hands.

"What? Oh! NO! It's not! You weren't here the past few weeks! You won't BELIEVE what I've been through!" Gauntlet protested.

"…That's a man's head." Cyborg repeated.

"Oh Vic, you see, these kids who were a lot like the Powerpuff Girls showed up and beat up Kurai, and then Robin got mad at me because I broke into their parents' house, then I went all over trying to get proof that they were evil, then I found them and they WERE evil and they attacked me so I am we need to get the rest of the team!"

"…………that's a man's head." Cyborg said once more.

"Look, Kurai was attacking us. Big ol' robot army. Struck right after you ran off, I'm amazed you didn't drive past them! And Raven left too! We were screwed! Then these little kids showed up and beat up Kurai. I didn't trust them because I thought they were too innocent. They were. I fought their evil robot parents, and here I am, and we need to get the others!"

"…………….that's a man's head, Robert." Cyborg said. "Without a body to go with it."

"Vic, it's an evil ROBOT head. Try and keep up with me here!" Gauntlet said in a rush. "It belonged to the Powerpuff Girl's parents. They attacked ME, I barely got out of there alive! So now, we have to HAUL ASS because SOMEWHERE in this city are evil robot CHILDREN who are as strong as SUPERMAN, and the team doesn't know that they're evil ROBOTS!"

"…………THAT'S…A MAN'S….HEAD." Cyborg said.

"Oh screw this! Vic, do you have your communicator?"

"Well yeah, always…" Cyborg said as he took it out to demonstrate.

"Catch!" Gauntlet said, tossing Clayton's head to Cyborg, who caught it instinctively with wide eyes as Gauntlet snatched his communicator away from him.

"WHAT THE…damn, it is a robot. Geez." Cyborg said, looking it over. "Even with the damage, this is damn advanced…"

"Yes, and for SOME reason, I'm EMPHASING certain WORDS unexpectedly." Gauntlet said, as he activated the Titans' main distress line. "Robin, are you there! Answer me! I figured it all out! The whole sordid mess!"

"Well congratulations my ducky, you win a gold sticker!"

"…oh my god, it's Ringo Starr again!" Gauntlet said at the unexpected voice. "Your villainy will not go unpunished, STARR!"

"No you moron, it's not the Funny One! Though you're definitely speaking with the mastermind…"

* * *

"MAD MOD!" Robin yelled.

The red-haired Englishman turned his eyes from where he was speaking into his cane, having used special mechanisms to block and hijack the Titans' lines of communication.

"Well well, your friends finally made it here. See you later, for the last time, you stupid git." Mad Mod said, and cut the communiqué as he swung his cane around him, balancing it across his shoulders. "Hello my duckies! You look surprised to see me!"

Robin hated to admit it, but he was. He'd led the Titans through the sewers, through the wall, and out of the subbasement, finding a hallway and a single set of stairs…that led up to the main body of the warehouse.

And there they'd found Mod, in a room covered in darkness, the British lunatic lit only by one single spotlight shining from the ceiling.

And while Robin couldn't tell any details, the Englishman was standing on something MASSIVE: it was the only thing in the entire warehouse, which was pretty damn big, and yet it took up virtually 80 percent of the room.

It was not what Robin was expecting, to say the least.

"You? You are the one who took the children?" Starfire said.

"Right you are lassy! What, you can't figure out why?"

"…NO!" Beast Boy blurted out. "Will someone give me a Coles Notes?"

"Ah you rotten blighters get stupider by the week! Well, since you clearly want a speech, I'll give one to you!" Mod said, as he spun his cane down and slammed the base on what he was standing.

And more spotlights illuminated the room, finally showing what Mod was standing on. Robin was a bit taken away when he saw just how big it indeed was.

It looked like some kind of generator, but nothing in it resembled the conventional models Robin knew. It looked, in layman's terms, like somehow had taken the basic style of a stadium and constructed a generator around it.

The really odd thing was in front of them was a horseshoe-shaped cut out, as if a puzzle piece had been removed from the giant structure. Mod stood over it, standing on another mechanical setup that looked a touch more conformist: behind him were a lot of computers, electronics, and lots of wires, cables, and whatnot that was directly connected to the stadium generator.

"Behold! The greatest fruit of my genius mind! My quark gluon plasma generator!" Mod said, gesturing with his arm. "Your rotten Yank scientists are still trying to decide whether or not quarks exist, I not only confirmed it, I build a setup that let me harness the energy generated from separating them! You think splitting atoms is hard? You think that produces a lot of power? You could run this whole COUNTRY on the power this thing produces and still have enough to light up most of Mexico!"

"But…what does…" Robin began.

"DON'T interrupt your elders, boy! Let me finish! This machine's power output will finally allow me to solve all my problems! One involves the kidnapped children, and the other…well, enough of this game. It's been fun, but it's done!" Mod said, as he pressed a button on his cane.

And the entire building lit up.

And they came into view, floating around Mod.

"……………………………………………No." Robin said.

Blast, Bolt, and Blaze. The Zap Pack.

"Yes." Mod declared. "Meet my other greatest creations! ZP Units 1, 2, and 3! The most complex, realistic robot units possibly ever build on this planet! Forget the Red Tornado, forget Amazo, forget Tomorrow Woman, this is the new pinnacle! And you bought the story I gave them hook line and sinker!"

"…Rob was…right?" Terra squeaked.

"Of course he was! From the beginning! And I made sure none of you believed him! And I barely even had to do that! What the old Bard oft wrote in his works IS true: only the fool tends to speak the truth." Mod said. "You have no idea how much I hate you rotten little bastards. I went the extra mile to ensure this masterful setup went smoothly. And the looks on your faces…it was all worth it. Now, time for your final lesson, children. In the end, it's always the rotten bastards who come out ahead. Choke on it all the way down to hell."

And Mod pointed with his cane.

"Destroy them."

And outside, the thunder boomed.

_To Be Concluded!_


	34. Youth of the Nation: The Good Die Young

Chapter 36: The Good Die Young

When the man who had once been named Neil Richards said that in the end it was the rotten bastards who came out ahead, it wasn't a taunt to him. It was a reality.

He knew it all too well, from what he'd seen in his many years on the planet.

And it was a hard learned lesson. Mod hadn't always been the way he was now. Bloody hell, when he'd started out, he was a lot more like his hated enemies the Titans then he ever cared to admit (and fortunately he only had those thoughts when he'd had a pint or three too many).

Though it wasn't like he'd had grounds to have such a mindset, it would seem. Mod had been born in the early 30's. By the time he was approaching the age of reason, World War II was consuming the world and the London Blitz was well underway. Appeasement had only led to Hitler amassing the mightiest army that the world had seen at that time, and government arrogance and incompetence had quickly led to the downfall of France. Now Britain was alone, and the Nazis were determined to wipe the whole island off the face of the earth, leaving nothing of the once mighty empire but ruins and ash.

The Titans thought they had it bad? Even their Final Night mess didn't compare to the terror and horror of having thousands of pounds of bombs dropped on you nightly. At least that lunatic Lord of the Night had been somewhat clean, and most people had never known what hit them, and he'd only had ONE night of destruction. Mod, wondering if he was going to survive into the double digits, had spent many a night cowering in basements and various underground places, hoping and praying that any direct hits would find other targets. As defiant as the British had been, even their traditional stiff upper lip couldn't hide the fear that lay behind every set of eyes. Many had believed it was the end of the world, and they really weren't that far off. When the sight of a ruined body being feasted on by rats was not a once in a lifetime sight but a weekly occurrence, who couldn't say the end times were nigh?

But of course, things did not stay that way. Hitler's slowly disintegrating mind led him to attack the Soviet Union, breaking a peace pact he'd had with them and starting his downfall. Less then six months later the Japanese had reduced Pearl Harbor to a broken shell of its former self and the Americans were in the fray, finally coming out of their isolationist shell that the country often adopted in those days to join the war (and frankly, if Mod could change one bit about history, he would have kept the damn Yanks in said mindset of neutrality: with Europe in ruins after the war's end they'd grabbed onto the top spot on the planet and never looked back, and grown infuriatingly smug and arrogant about it. Mod couldn't even go watch war films any more, as every one that came out of Hollywood depicted the Americans as the lordly saviors of the foolish Europeans who'd let their asses get kicked by the Third Reich, single-handedly turning the tide and winning the war. If anything, the Communists had done more to turn the tide then the bloody Americans, but you wouldn't know that watching _Saving Private Ryan_! God, he hated Americans almost as much as he hated children and young folks, and he was damned determined to live long enough so he could see them fall from their wretched greed and swaggering hauteur). The war turned and Hitler was crushed. The world was pulled back from the brink of the abyss.

And Mod, who had somehow not lost any family in the terrible attacks, found his young teenage self filled with hope and optimism from it. They'd survived and won. New days were ahead. Anything seemed possible.

And Mod believed he could grab a part of that anything, and as the 40's came to a close and Mod approached adulthood, he'd made a toss at it. He'd always been intelligent and creative, and when the war was done Mod had found himself interested in clothing. For a few years he sketched and drew, and finally he showed off his designs. He thought they were new and interesting, and could potentially be a hit.

Everyone pretty much told him the opposite: they were stupid, ridiculous, and damn it why was he designing clothes, was he a fag? (No, Mod was quite heterosexual, and the abuse he'd taken on the suspicion of being gay had actually given him quite the tolerance for them: lord knows what THEY'D been through). Stop being a dreaming poof and get a real job, Nellie, they'd said.

Mod had been upset and angered, yes. But at the time, he'd taken it. Maybe they were right on some things. Maybe he should get his hands dirty and pour some sweat off his brow before he started focusing on such things as design. So many of his elders had sacrificed so much so he'd have this chance, maybe he should do his own hard work first. And so he'd taken a job at a factory, the first of several rather menial jobs he'd had over the next decade. He didn't LIKE them, but he felt satisfied that it was good, honest work, and that he was probably learning some essential skills. And he never forgot his original interest in clothes, though as time passed and Mod grew more worldly, he began to have new interests in other fields, such as mechanics and electronics. That was where the future lay. But his heart always had a soft spot for his designs, and every now and then he'd look them over, or sketch a new idea.

By the time the late 50's had rolled around, Mod was a foreman at a shipbuilding factory, and while it wasn't No 1 in the country, Mod was content that he was doing a good job running the place and its many young workers. His interests hadn't faded, though at the time Mod had started focusing more on automobiles and electronics (he'd had a few ideas regarding improvements on transistors for example), writing down and sketching his ideas when he could. He kept several journals at work for that purposes, filled with various scribbles, with a few of course devoted to his clothing ideas. He was saving his money with the rough idea that he'd quit in a few years and work on developing a prototype or two, and seeing where that got him.

Then one day a bad fire sprang up in the factory, and Mod's office was very badly scorched. Mod had consigned himself to the idea his journals were lost, which upset him some, but not too much: he had a few dozen more back at his flat and he'd been able to recreate most of what he'd come up with by memory. He swallowed the loss and returned to work when the factory was repaired. And life went on.

And then several months later they appeared.

HIS clothing, on the backs of teenagers as a new fad swept through England. His journals weren't as destroyed as he'd believed. Someone had gotten ahold of them, somehow, and taken the designs, placing them among other clothing types such as Italian suits, and as Mod had once dreamed, they'd caught on, as young people married them to certain brands of music and created a sub-culture. Its name was mod, short for Modernism.

At least that was what Mod believed: he never really had any proof that someone HAD come across his books and stolen his ideas or if someone had somehow come up with the same concepts and had a better time to try them out. In the end, Neil Richards, as he was still known then, didn't really have a problem with that, or with the music mixing, or the fact he never made a penny off of it (though not at the beginning). No, what ultimately brought Mod around to the viewpoints that would define the rest of his life was that he didn't get a single ounce of credit in the creation of the culture. Not even a little. Not even the tiniest mention in some third-rate newspaper or a line in some dusty history book. His creations had been taken from him, and he'd been completely cut out.

And oh, how he'd raged at that fact. He'd tried to prove it, of course. But no one would believe him, even with his old sketchbooks. He'd been laughed out of the patent office, he was laughed out of the newspapers, and the kids who had so wholly embraced his creative fruits laughed at the hardest at him, when they weren't mocking him for being old ( HE HADN'T EVEN TURNED 30 YET! HE WASN'T OLD!), unable and unwilling to believe that HE was, if not the, at least ONE of the fathers of their culture.

But the ones that had the farthest-reaching effects on him were his young workers at the factory, more then a few who had embraced the mod style themselves. They quickly learned of his claims, and it became a joke at his place of work as well. They even gave him a nickname behind his back. Richards claimed to have created the mod lifestyle, so therefore he wasn't just a mod, he was THE Mod. And now he was furious at this so-called theft of his work, all the time, which really made him a bit crazy, didn't it? Therefore, he was the Mad Mod.

It was in those terrible months that Mod finally learned the harsh truths about the way the world worked. And what he realized most of all was that the truth and reality didn't really matter. All that mattered was what people thought, and in most cases, merely what they saw would do: no thought was needed. And who most often reaped the rewards of such a viewpoint? Why, the people who could lie and screw over the best to ensure it suited them: it was the rotten bastards who came out ahead, not the honest, hard-working ones. And who so often swallowed those lies and believed them without thought? Why, the youth, the idiotic, self-righteous, self-satisfied, youth, who not only didn't know the truth but didn't give a damn. The endless youth, swallowing up the world in the baby boom after the war.

And in these realizations, Mod in turn realized what he would do with his life. If that was what the world rewarded, then Mod would make damn sure he got his share. And he'd make damn sure everyone else regretted that fact as badly as Mod regretted his wasted years.

And so Mod had completely changed gears, throwing away his old work except where it suited him. He began new studies into perception, learning about hypnosis, hallucination, illusion, misdirection, and every other trick of 'the eye' he could. And he learned that you didn't always have to be the biggest and baddest when you had the tools and the talent to build things that would serve those tasks for you. In time, he did quit his job (called Mad Mod by his co-workers to the end), and he did build some prototypes.

He used them to rob a bank blind, and followed that up with new technology and techniques unseen anywhere else on the planet at the time that ensured not a single cent of the money was traced to him. Flush with his new funds, he began further work on his prototypes.

And hence was his life for the next few decades, as Mod built his machines and used them to take whatever he wanted. In the process, with his parents dead and his siblings not that close to him, Mod gradually severed all ties to his previous life, erasing every single record of Neil Richards' existence. It ceased to be his name: he had a new one. He was the Mad Mod, now and forever.

And as technology advanced, by his hands and others, Mod did everything he could to combine and enhance, creating smaller, more powerful, and more complex tricks involving the altering of perception and view. This made sure that he was never linked to any crimes: his devices or patsies did the work for him, and over time his bank accounts grew into the hundreds of millions, money Mod used to indulge his twin desires for revenge and improvement, always seeking to create something bigger and better. But anything he did make that he couldn't use, he locked away: society had stolen his initial work, it would never see anything of any future work he made.

And his resentment of youth only grew deeper and more virulent as time passed: he didn't expect his culture to last forever, but he was still offended when the youth finally discarded it, moving on like it never existed (true, there was always a niche for it somewhere, but hell, there were still people who thought Hitler was right, and Mod knew firsthand what idiots they were). And when his country had embraced punk and all its nihilistic nonsense, Mod had seriously considered using his machines to have the Sex Pistols murdered in their beds. In the end, his work distracted him, though his hatred remained as fierce as ever.

Something else was working at him too. Time. He'd been mocked by those teenage idiots as old long ago, but now he really was starting to get old. And he was getting to the age of reflection, where after so long sustaining him, the angry passions that had driven him were finally burning out. When he'd had too many beers, he sometimes wondered if he wasted his whole damn life, a thought that ceased occurring to him the next morning when he woke up with a hangover, the fresh pain adding new fuel to his dysfunctions. But technology was still advancing, and Mod was eager to see what he could make next. So he had to deal with the problem of time.

So he trained his tremendously potent noggin on it, and after seven months of focus he'd finished the first prototype of his Chronological Energy Transference Device, a mechanism he'd improve over the years to the point where he could fit it into his cane (he tended now to just call it his 'Chronocane'). The device used a complicated method of combining various energies to literally 'drain time' from living creatures, transferring it to other creatures and quite literally making their biological clocks run in reverse, even as the clocks of the target suddenly sped ahead several hours. After a great deal of testing, Mod had finally used it on himself, and found to his great joy it worked, turning back the clock to when he was a young man.

Unfortunately, as Mod found out, the problem was he wouldn't stay that way. On this plane of existence, time was one of the fundamental forces of the universe, and it could be damn stubborn when it came to it being manipulated. Eventually, no matter how hard Mod tried, the chrono-energies he'd stolen would leave his body, returning it to its original, aged state, while it returned whatever he'd stolen the energy from to its proper age. Despite all his efforts, Mod found he could only become young for a few days at most: expanding that or making it permanent seemed beyond his ability. Still, it was a damn useful trick from time to time, not to mention an effective disabling and intimidating factor whenever Mod had to actually meet with like criminal minds. And so he'd gone on for several more years.

But, as the millennium passed, Mod found that even that wasn't keeping him going any more. Becoming young just made him more aware of how old he was in natural terms, and he could swear that when he was younger his brain didn't seem as sharp and effective as it did for him in old age, polished by decades of study, thought, and creation. Not to mention superheroes were making his old-style robberies nearly impossible to pull off: even if they never traced it back to him (and they'd tried, Mod had had a flew close calls, as much as it irritated him), it was just easier to electronically hack into bank accounts and transfer the money elsewhere, and where was the fun in that?

It seemed even his beloved England was turning on him. It had fended off the Nazi threat that had marked his childhood, but sometimes Mod thought the cure had seemed worse then the disease, as the war's ravages started the country's long, slow decline. Not to mention it's cold weather bothering his aging body and its government becoming the toady and puppy of the hated United States. Indeed, he'd nearly had a stroke when a trip to a doctor (under a false identity) led to the doctor recommending he find a warmer climate to live in if he wanted a longer and more comfortable old age.

Like Florida.

But after a great deal of grudging thought (not to mention aching joints), Mod had finally decided he would at least try it, and had flown over to Florida.

He'd never expected to find renewed purpose there, but than again, he never expected this would be his life to begin with, as within a week he'd seen them in a newspaper.

The Teen Titans. Youth were bad enough, and superheroes almost as much so, but YOUNG SUPERHEROES? Mod hated them on sight. One would think that after his rage for several decades at the failings of young people a group that went out and did good things might appeal to him, but to Mod, a career criminal stuck in his ways (which were never that balanced and sane to begin with), it struck him as a personal insult. Rotten kids pretending to not be rotten? And mucking around in his life's work? How dare they!

And so, Mod found a new reason to go on. He had more then enough money, and making new things was a 'you had to be there' process. Now, he had one goal: teach these little bastards a lesson.

And so Mod had set up a masterwork inside an old oil rig, combining his life's work on perception and mechanics to create a nightmare classroom taught by him (or rather, a hologram of his young self clad in the clothing HE'D invented), even figuring out ways to nullify the Titans' powers and sneak into their Tower in the process. And so he'd kidnapped them, to break their minds for their personal insult.

…and he'd lost. The leader, Robin, had somehow seen through the illusion and wrecked it all. And since Mod had needed to be right there to keep everything going (micromanagement worked best, whether in running a factory or trying to break down children's minds), for the first time in his life he'd been caught.

The Titans probably would have insulted him less if they'd all spat in his face. Indeed, their victory made Mod angrier then he had been in decades.

He didn't stay in jail long (once captured the Titans turned their attention from him onto other things, and the police, stifled by a lack of records, quickly fell victim to his contingency plans that broke him out), and with renewed vigor he set to work on a new master plan. And as time passed, Mod decided he'd kill two birds with one stone and take a shot at the bastard States as well, and unveiled a new magnum opus of illusion and deception combined with force on that Fourth of July. He even pulled out the old chronocane, using it on Robin for his insult of foiling him last time (and using a hologram to put various suits over his own once he'd become youthful again). Unfortunately, while Mod had compensated for the fact that by then three new members had joined the Titans, it wasn't enough, and he lost once more. Robin even stole his youth back with Mod's own cane before breaking it (though Robin would have just had to break the cane to do that instead of putting the process in reverse: the problem with reducing such a complicated device down to such small levels left it immensely delicate, and despite his efforts Mod would always find his 'youth charge' immediately dissipating if his cane was broken), and the Titans had actually chased him around the street a bit before throwing him back in jail.

Once again, Mod swiftly broke out, but this time he retreated from Jump, his anger boiling within him. Next time would be different. The third time would be a charm.

It was with those thoughts that Mod had hidden in a small hotel on the coast of Florida.

And it was on his second night sleeping there that he'd suddenly woken up with a gigantic flash of creative insight that felt like a bomb going off in his head. He'd flown to the closest desk and spent the next fifteen hours writing furiously as thoughts poured one after another from his brain, the beginnings of what would eventually be his quark gluon plasma generator. Indeed, he'd written so furiously that when studying the notes later he had trouble understanding about a third of them.

Once the epiphany stage had passed though, Mod was uncertain just what to do with such a theoretical power source. However, believing that surely he had been struck by these thoughts for a reason, Mod had continued with research, study, and insight into the machine…and quickly come up with a solution: if he could properly build such a machine, he could potentially build a robot that used it as a power source, a robot so overwhelmingly strong that the Titans would have no chance against it. His masterful setups had failed twice: perhaps this time he should just cut to the chase. And so Mod had thrown himself into finalizing the generator and creating the robot prototype that would be needed to harness and utilize its power.

He'd been working on it for just over a month when he had the headache, an agony ripping through his skull so intense he was left with a bloody nose. Mod was no idiot, and quickly assumed another one of his false identities to go to the closest 'best' hospital he could for treatment

Despite himself, he never thought of the possibilities until the CAT scans came back.

He was dying: his brain was infested with a tumor that had rooted itself over his frontal lobes, plaguing it like a malignant fungus. The tendrils it had driven into the tissue were too deep to remove, and killing the 'unprotected' rotten tissue was ultimately pointless: unless they got it all it will simply return. The doctors couldn't give him a time frame until he died, but they suggested he put his affairs in order, and that he might want to prepare himself for constant medical care in his last few months.

Mod thought he had been mad before: his anger at this revelation was so intense it was amazing he didn't fry the tumor through sheer force of will. This couldn't happen, not now. Not when he had a surefire way to destroy the Titans.

But it had: time had seemingly punished him for his defiances of it by ensuring Mod would not have enough to finish his final master plan.

Like hell he'd let it.

Mod quickly acquired his own medical equipment, built a new chronocane, and tested his last hope as he drained the first young person he could and had new tests done on his own. He did several just to be sure, and found to his immense relief that what he theorized was true: when he was young, the tumor vanished, 'rewound' out of existence. But this still left the original problem: his time drains were limited, and Mod couldn't live going from victim to victim, he'd surely get caught and risk end up dying in a prison hospital. He needed something more permanent…but WHAT?

It was in those days afterward that Mod found that his time reversal had negative side affects as well: he no longer could work on his generator or robot. New ideas simply would not come, and he found that even doing technical work was immensely confusing unless he consulted his notes. What he had theorized was apparently true: while he retained memory when he became young, his intellectual abilities dropped down, lacking the polish of a long life. An annoying factor, but one that paled in comparison to the reaper's scythe hanging over him. So Mod let himself stay old to do his creative thinking, as he tried, desperately, to find a solution.

And amazingly, he did. While his chronocane (and the transference technology in itself) was immensely advanced, it was obsolete in several areas already, technology forever forging ahead. Studying several new mechanical techniques and advances, Mod finally came across an answer to permanently transferring youth to himself…all he would need to do is drain all the power off all the electrical grids of the States to do it.

Or…invent a brand new power source that would provide him with that much energy.

Like his generator. He'd already started working on the answer.

But that wasn't the end of his problems, oh no. By that failed Fourth of July revolution, Mod had exposed his time-sucking technology: it was known now. Even if he build a permanent transfer machine, the finding of a child suddenly transformed into an old man would surely provoke the fury of the police and by extension the superheroes. They'd give him no peace in attempting to hunt him down and reverse the process: he'd have a new life but wouldn't be able to enjoy any of it for as long as it lasted.

But Mod wasn't giving up when he had answers in his grasp, and a few more weeks' work finally gave him a new solution. The main reason his chronocane had failed in permanent transference was that Mod lacked the power to permanently bind such energies to himself. As a result, Mod often took all the youth he could in one shot, as it wasn't going to last. But his initial studies hadn't made this the only option: Mod could theoretically take as much time as he wanted (to a certain limit of course: Mod's early tests had realized the deep hazards of taking too much. If he drained the energies of something to the point where it literally ceased to exist, not only did he risk ending up as an infant himself, but the energies would have no vessel to return to when they left him, and lacking a home, they would promptly enter anything in the vicinity, causing spontaneous acts of unnatural aging that wouldn't be good for ANYTHING. Mod had, early on, tried to work out what would happen if he somehow sucked up enough chronological energy so that both he and the target ceased to exist, hence eliminating both the original vessel and the receiving one. When early answers indicated the potential complete unraveling of the fabric of the universe ala _Back To The Future_, Mod had made sure to put severe safety measures in place). He could even take time from inorganic matter if he chose, though he never did: time affected things like rocks and trees different then humans, and it created too many risky variables. So taking a child's whole life seemed to invite more trouble then it was worth…why not take just a little?

And while studying that possibility, Mod stumbled across another strong theory: in basic terms, while it was 'easy' to return such stolen energies if they were taken in one big dose (via the natural state of order, or the reversal of his devices), if Mod took a little from multiple people, all at once, the unique energies would act like ingredients in a mixing bowl that had just been subjected to a blender: it would be left a combined entity, unable to separate the original ingredients out from again. Basically, it would be nearly impossible to suck the youth back out of him if he stole it from a bunch of people at once in a properly synchronized array.

He had his answer: with his quark powered generator, a modified chronological transference device, and enough targets, Mod would not only defeat the tumor, he'd give himself a second life.

But acquiring so many targets, aka children…that would be a task in and of itself.

For that, Mod would need a few new things. Like help.

And so that was how it came to pass that Mod had recruited Jonathon Renard, or as he much preferred, Johnny Rancid. It wasn't the first choice Mod would have made: Rancid was close to the ages Mod detested and also fully enamored of the punk lifestyle that Mod had also gravely disliked. But Rancid had a great aptitude for mechanics, he hated the Titans as much as Mod did, and Mod paid him enough to keep him in line, especially with the other promise Mod made to him: if Rancid helped him complete these tasks needed to give himself a new life, Mod would give him his initial generator and robot to use as he saw fit. The concept of the hell he could raise with such things, combined with the fact Rancid could only wrap his mind around the lower concepts, insured that Mod had something of a dependable partner. At least at the moment.

And he needed it, as Mod now had four large tasks stretching before him: complete the generator, complete the new transference array, kidnap enough children to make it all worthwhile, and not get caught in the process. And in the last one, the big problem was always going to be those accursed Titans.

And in that, Mod had his final epiphany. He could combine all the tasks into one massive master plan, and do everything at once: save his life and destroy his enemies. His original plan of a superpowered robot was fine, but it lacked spark. It might be able to slaughter the Titans, but there would be little satisfaction in that, especially after the grief they'd given Mod. They deserved worse. They deserved to have their spirits destroyed as well as their bodies. But after all they'd endured, Mod knew that'd be harder to do then theorize.

But they were still stupid kids, and part of them still held onto concepts like justice and fairness.

That was his answer. That was the chink in their armor that Mod would slip a dagger into. That was what he would create his greatest scheme ever around.

And so Mod threw himself into the work. He, Rancid, and his robots worked tirelessly to assemble the generator piece by piece, only planning to fully put it together and turn it on at the right time. Mod went into his schematics and studies on perception and began modifying and creating the devices he'd needed. Mechanisms to hide the power output of the generator. Mechanisms to aid in the swift kidnapping of children and leave behind no witnesses of any kind, human or electronic, as well as forensics of any type. Mechanisms to reinforce the wonderful trick he was about to play. While some of those were tricky, creating the modified chrono-transference setup was almost simple to Mod.

But the majority of the work went into creating the ZP units, the robots that would masquerade as new, incredibly powerful heroes that would integrate themselves into the Teen Titans. Knowing the power of cynicism and the lure of hope, Mod decided to make them children, young fans of the Titans who had been given powers by miraculous means, and hence now wanted to be everything they believed the Titans were. While on one hand this would prompt more suspicion, Mod believed the payoff would be far more effective when the truth was revealed.

And to hide the suspicion, Mod created as meticulous a background for the Zap Pack as he could. He created robots to be their parents and placed them in a suburb of Jump, hypnotizing the surrounding blocks so they believed the proper backstory of when the units had arrived with their children (who were played by simpler models until the actual ZP units had been finished). He contacted the Calculator, the information source for the underworld, and made a massive payment to him to create and insert the needed computer records, as well as actual hard fakes later when it was needed. He even swallowed his pride and contacted outside sources, trading information and schematics for anything that would help him make the most realistic, flawless robot fakes he could, for the parents and ESPECIALLY for the Zap Pack.

The outside help had convinced him of the viability of the scheme, as he'd gotten a fair bit of it. Thomas Oscar Morrow had shared with him immensely useful information on creating and programming the AI's. A mysterious contact that simply gave themselves as L.Dafoe, upon being traded several of Mod's power schematics, had provided an immensely long analysis on human psychology and the weaknesses Mod could exploit. Mod had even been given various information on robot models and concealing their true nature by another, nameless contact, though Mod had strong suspicions it was actually Lex Luthor, perhaps acting on a whim, or bored in his office one day. Mod had made sure to hold back enough details so no one figured out what he was doing, or so he thought (in reality all his important contacts figured it out almost immediately, but had no reason to tell anyone, yet).

The overall message was that dedication was the thing. Simply programming his robots to impersonate their roles wasn't enough: it was better to go the extra mile and actually MAKE them their roles. As long as Mod maintained master control over them, actually inserting them completely into their concepts would work far better then just trying to pretend being them. That went for the parents as well.

And so Mod had done that. He'd created AI's so complex he believed the Nobel Prize Committee should have given them their next ten year's worth of awards just for them. If he actually figured out how to make human brains, he couldn't have designed them much better then the electronic counterparts he'd made. While deep down the Zap Pack and the AHDD-CM that had become the final version of their parents knew they were robots and what their ultimate purpose was, it didn't get in their way. The parents acted like parents, and the Zap Pack acted like hero-worshipping kids. It was virtually seamless. Mod was so impressed with his own work he sometimes forgot the falseness at their core himself.

He would have enjoyed it more if the tumor hadn't become more and more deliberating as time passed. Mod needed to be old to work at his highest level, and that became more and more strenuous as the tumor advanced. The headaches became more frequent, Mod had trouble keeping food down, he would have random phases of weakness in his arms and legs, and later on he began suffering blackouts, waking up to find hours had passed. Time was breathing down his neck, and he was pressed to finish this final task and do everything right.

The other problem was Rancid. Despite how much Mod had paid him, Rancid was a creature of chaos, loving the feel of causing a little havoc, and he'd only put up with keeping his head down and doing endless menial work with the promise of all his dreams coming within his grasp when it was done for so long. Mod had been able to distract him for a while with the kidnappings (Johnny liked doing ANYTHING that could be called wicked), Johnny utilizing the cloaking/distorting and evidence preventing devices (the latter mostly done via a personal shield that prevented any trace evidence from being left behind: similar devices were on the modified van they'd used and a large one had been around the Bonaparte house) in tandem with Mod to randomly locate and take kids to their various hideouts. He also got a kick out of transporting the kids from city to city in large trucks as they drew larger in number, partially for the risk and partially for how stressed said risk made Mod. The kids weren't much of a problem: Mod kept them quiet and pacified with various hypnotic technology and promises to let them go when he was done with the 'favor' they were going to do for him (and Mod meant it: he may have been a criminal and he may have hated kids, but he wasn't a monster, or at least that kind of monster), setting up each hideout in advance and moving between each perfectly, no one suspecting a thing on the nature of the kidnappings until it was needed.

But even those had failed to pacify Rancid, and he began pushing to at least go out and raise some hell. Mod had done his best to discourage him, pointing out that if he got caught, he could screw up their scheme, and that would end without him having superpowered robots at his beck and call. It had worked, somewhat, but Rancid had no patience and began getting antsier and antsier, especially at the length of time Mod was spending to set up the Zap Pack. They had the generator, they had the timewhowhatis, they had lots of kids, why not just do the deed and send the robots to smash the Titans flat?

Mod had spent two hours trying to explain the more satisfying end his plan would result in, and Johnny seemed to buy it. But Mod had been feeling the pressure. They were finally in Jump, the generator was ready, and just a few more children needed to be taken for Mod's optimum conditions. And spending time in his natural body was getting even harder.

Worst of all, while the setup for the Zap Pack was amazingly detailed, it was not complete. Mod was still struggling to figure out how to conceal their nature from several types of scans, including the sensing abilities of the witch Raven. It was immensely aggravating: if he could figure out a way to conceal or fake out the enhanced senses the shape shifter Beast Boy could adapt, surely there was a way to fake out the witch's abilities to sense emotions, or the robot's deeper scanning ability!

But he had been coming up blank on those. Maybe he didn't have the time to fully do his plan. Maybe it might be smarter to listen to Rancid.

In the end, life had once again answered for him.

Mod had been keeping an eye on the Titans, even in other cities, and especially in Jump. And he saw what happened when the Titans abruptly left, and then returned without one of their members, the white haired 'Savior' (stupid pretentious git, like a rotten kid could save anything). Mod had good enough recon to puzzle out he was either dead or disabled for a considerable period. And then, as if life was granting him a wish, the witch and the robot both left, one after the other, heading out of the city. It seemed like too tempting an opportunity to pass up, but after all that had happened, Mod didn't want to risk jumping the gun and having it all fall apart…

And then Kurai had attacked. Mod had been so focused on his own plan and keeping it hidden, it seemed, that he hadn't heard anything through the underworld grapevine about others.

And once it started, Mod knew he had a serious problem. Kurai was powerful enough to potentially beat and kill the Titans at full strength, let along the reduced numbers they were at now, and that wasn't even considering the massive robot army and minions of Slade he'd assembled as backup.

If Kurai killed the Titans, the heart would go out of Mod's plan. Sure, he could still be young, and his foes would be dead…but it would lack satisfaction.

And so Mod rolled the dice, turned on the generator, and sent out the Zap Pack.

And in the end, it had worked better than Mod could have ever hoped. Sure, the Titans were suspicious, especially the idiot Gauntlet (Mod had nearly had a heart attack when he'd labeled the Zap Pack as 'evil'), but not overtly suspicious. And the sudden jump into action had forced Mod to contact the Calculator and tell him to put the hard copy fakes in place immediately, something Calculator had grumbled about, hating being put on the spot (Mod sweetened the deal with an extra 10 million dollar bonus). In the end, Calculator had actually done pretty well in getting his 'outsourced work' to place the carefully prepared fake documents…but with the rush job needed, even he hadn't been perfect. But he'd done well enough to fool Robin, and the holes discovered by Gauntlet (indeed, the identical report cards and lack of tax records had meant something after all) were rendered irrelevant by who he was. Fortunately, the nature of the Zap Pack gave Mod several days to properly set up the parents at the houses as well as the Zap Pack's fake origin. The 'mystery sky metal' was actually just a piece of prepared titanium and steel Mod had irritated with energies from his chrono-transference machine and quark gluon generator: it left a strange non-radioactive signature that baffled most modern computers until it faded away, hence leaving Robin with a mystery he was destined never to solve. Though in the end he'd forgotten the picture thing Gauntlet had brought up, but that had once again proven relatively irrelevant due to how Gauntlet was. Indeed, it was as if life was telling him he would win: Raven and Cyborg, the really hard ones to fool, were out of town, and the paranoid and distrusting Savior was out of the picture it seemed. Even if Cyborg or Raven had returned, by then the Zap Pack would have entrusted themselves to the Titans, and neither would have a reason to look beyond the surface (at least that was Mod's theory, though he preferred that the two not come back at all until things were done). That left Robin, and the whole plan was set up to fool him: the rest of the Titans, as Gauntlet had accurately pointed out, could easily be dismissed.

And Robin, for all his brains, still had that hope Mod could exploit, the hope that sprung from the sorrow and weariness of watching bad things happen, and of wanting a balance, wanting it bad enough to ignore things when they shouldn't have. And so the Titans had accepted the Zap Pack, with the exception of Gauntlet, and all Mod had to do was press a button here and there and Robin did the rest, kicking Gauntlet off the team and ensuring anything the teenager claimed would be believed as false and selfishly delusional.

It was going perfectly, though Mod regretted having to beat up so many of his fellows united in hatred of the Titans. But it was a necessary evil. Now all Mod had to do was grab a few more kids and finish up a few last little details…

And then Rancid had finally been unable to take it any more and run off to indulge his deviant urges. Mod had tried to stop him, but Rancid had blown him off, saying that with the Zap Pack around, he was essentially untouchable: they wouldn't try and stop him, and even if things went badly he could always use them to break out or get away. It could be blamed on childish error, and he'd have free reign to do whatever he wanted.

It was sad, really. Mod had not been planning to betray Rancid. He kept his word: that was the sign of a proper adult. When this was done and Mod had been made young again, he HAD been going to give Rancid the Zap Pack and the quark generator to do with as he wished (he might not have been as smart as he was now when he was young, but Mod had compensated for this by writing comprehensive notes of every single aspect of the process, right down to the smallest detail, on paper and in the computer. Even with his reduced intellect, he would be able to re-create his greatest inventions via that method). But Rancid had simply assumed too much: that the Zap Pack as they were then would keep him from being caught or held, and that hence the information Rancid possessed of their true nature would not fall into the wrong hands. Mod couldn't risk it.

And so he'd had sent the Zap Pack after him, making Blaze 'accidentally' break his jaw to keep him from talking. With Rancid's violent nature, he would surely be tied down at all times in the prison hospital, and no none would think to even given him a crayon, let alone pen and paper: with no jaw he wouldn't be saying or writing down anything incriminating. He'd tried, yelling "I'VE BEEN BETRAYED!" as he was taken away via ambulance, but the Titans had had no idea what he was saying, and hence Rancid had been removed from the picture. It was regrettable, but the man had brought it on himself. Young people had no patience nowadays, even the ones Mod thought weren't half-bad (in relative terms).

Of course, without Rancid, Mod had found himself without the pair of strong, steady arms that had helped him with a lot of the practical details. There were still a few kids left to kidnap, and now Mod had to do it himself, and even with the help of his devices that wasn't going to be easy. Plus he now had to set everything up himself: his robots would help but only to a degree, and Mod was loathe to call in the Zap Pack or the parents lest it screw up the plan. Perhaps the worst part of the whole thing was the part that Mod wasn't even aware of: the tumor had long ago started eating away at the part of Mod's brain that controlled rationality, and Mod's ability to be straightforward and lucid was starting to come and go. Indeed, it was that fact that had resulted in Mod's 'epiphany' over the ridiculously complicated nature of his scheme: Robin had claimed villains who were smart hated needless complications, but that didn't really apply to a villain whose old gray matter ain't what it used to be, as one might say.

And hence instead of a straightforward line of task-doing and wrapping up, Mod's plans became twisted and distorted as he veered from lucidity to madness and back, not even aware of it half the time. He'd had the sense to locate a being-transported Overload and use an old nanomachine device he'd invented earlier to supercharge him, hence tying up the Titans so he could carry out the remaining three kidnappings (which had actually gone well), but then, falsely believing he needed to, he'd later released an old robot he'd built back in the 50's that he'd mothballed ages ago for…well, just because (having a shrinking and teleporting mechanism was very useful in making a robot pop out of nowhere). Upon releasing the robot, he realized that he should probably go kidnap one last kid in the process. Except he'd been struck by another terrible headache as he was dragging him away and he'd dropped his distorting device, letting the kid wake up. The kid had promptly bit him (and could you blame him? As well as being dragged off, Mod at the time was old and his grip was very high on the 'pinch' factor, hence the kid describing it as 'painful') and Mod had cursed at him, calling him a 'little rotter' (a spot of beneficial mis-remembrance) and then activating his backup device, at which point he decided he was better off without one extra kid then with the extra hassle and ran off, leaving the kid behind. Driving back to his base, his mind cleared up enough that he realized the best thing to do was drain the first person he saw and then use his clear-thinking young self to properly predict that his failure would surely put Robin on his tail, so he'd best put the plan into its end stages.

And that was just what he'd done.

True, there had been one last (metaphorical) headache when Gauntlet had broken into the parents' house. Mad Mod, multitasking on keeping an eye on the approaching Titans AND keeping the various blocking and distorting fields properly synched so he could communicate but the Titans couldn't, had tried on top of that to feed the proper things to say into the ears of the parents. It had almost worked, but Mod had outsmarted himself and accidentally given Rob's real origin instead of the cover story, which had blown the whole thing up and forced Mod to activate the combat attributes of the robots and ordered them to destroy Gauntlet. Whether they succeeded or failed didn't matter: the mice were sniffing at the cheese and even if Gauntlet beat the robots, figured out where his friends were, and ran over, he'd just end up in the same fate the Titans were destined to.

Which was finally coming to pass. After all his work, all his trouble, all the hassles including a defiant partner and a brain that was turning to rot, Mad Mod had pulled it off. The Titans had bought his story and Mod had yanked the rug out from under them, and the look on their faces as they realized it made Mod feel better then he had perhaps in decades.

And it was just beginning. The beginning of the end.

"Destroy them."

And now…you know the rest…of the story.

* * *

(Author's Note: Sorry to interrupt, but I figure I should point this out to possible new readers: yes, Jump City is in California. CANON Jump City. When I first started making my Titan world back in Season 1, a communication snafu caused me to place it in Florida, and by the time we had precise confirmation of its location in Season 5, it was too late to change it back. So yes, that means Titans East doesn't make a lot of sense…but pobody's nerfect. Hence, in my fanon world, Jump is in Florida. Also, Mad Mod's just given origin was also overhauled by me: he had virtually none in the comics and none in the cartoons, so hey, open field. Sorry for the interruption, but at least I didn't stick it right in the narrative, right? Why didn't I put it at the beginning…because it would spoil the upcoming writing, that's why. Story continuing! Back to the deep poop the Titans are in!)

* * *

"I'm still not sure what the hell is going on here Rob." Cyborg said as he frantically chased Gauntlet around.

"Didn't you hear the voice? Mad Mod built superrobots and he's tricked our friends into thinking they're heroes, and now he's going to turn said superrobots on our friends and kill them!"

"Mod…what…why him…"

"Oh read the above narrative! DAMN!" Gauntlet said. "I didn't have time to triangulate Robin's position: I don't have any idea where he is! Cyborg, can you track them?"

"I'll try." Cyborg said, still in the dark about what was going on, but if it was serious enough to make Rob act, well, serious…

"…damn it. Something's jamming their tracking and location devices. I can't get a firm signal." Cyborg informed the frantic teen, which didn't help his mood.

"Great. Where the hell could they be?" Gauntlet said, banging his hand on his forehead. "Wait, maybe Mod had his base rise out of the ocean or something!…no, scratch that." Gauntlet said as he ran over to the window and scanned the sea.

"Uh Rob…?" Cyborg began.

"Maybe Robin left a subtle clue somewhere. Quick Cyborg, let's take a look at the contents of the fridge!" Gauntlet said as he opened said appliance. "Okay…if we assume that that can of juice is Titans Tower, then we can conclude that that old steak is City Hall…but what would the goal be…AHA! Last week's leftovers! No wait, that would put us right in the middle of…"

"Rob…!"

"Wait, I know, Robin probably foresaw this, so he must have stolen Doctor Doom's time machine! Using the Cosmic Treadmill and the aid of Kid Flash, he could break the dimensional veil and steal it! He must have left it around here somewhere so that we could go into the past and find out where he went!"

"….WHAT?"

"Now it's been a while since I saw Doctor Doom's time machine, but the only room that could have it is…ACK!" Gauntlet yelped as Cyborg walked over to him, seized him by the ear, and began dragging him across the room.

"I was TRYING to tell you, Robin's room is lit up. I know that glow, it's his computer. And if I know Tim…" Cyborg said, as he pulled Gauntlet into Robin's work room…revealing the large computer screen, still adorned with the same coordinates that Robin had worked out and headed off to, in such a hurry he hadn't even turned his computer off.

"We could just use THOSE." Cyborg said.

"…Sorry. Being right about this crazy conspiracy is throwing off my Occam's Razor. Let's go! I'll drive!" Gauntlet said as he ran off.

"Oh no, you being right does NOT give you THAT right…!" Cyborg yelled as he chased after the blonde teen, who had pulled out Cyborg's communicator and was fiddling with it.

"I just realized, we are very badly outmatched." Gauntlet said to Cyborg.

"So what are you doing?"

"Calling Young Justice." Gauntlet said as he finished the call and put it to his ear.

BEEP!

_"Hi, this is Superboy and you have reached the Young Justice hotline. We're sorry, but our team has been disbanded to make room for a Teen Titans comic. Please make a note of it."_

"DAMN YOU GEOFF JOHNS!"

* * *

"Destroy them."

The fact that Robin didn't immediately see his vision go black and his sense of being cease to exist took a bit to register to him, as he found he'd actually closed his eyes when Mod had spoke.

He'd already accepted he was dead. Gauntlet had been right, and the little kids who Robin had actually believed were just that were in fact agents of one of their bitter enemies. And considering all he'd analyzed, Robin had been certain of his own demise as soon as Mod had given the order.

But the attack hadn't come.

And Robin found it still wasn't coming as he looked up at Mad Mod, the Zap Pack floating around him. And for the first time he noted their expressions.

They weren't smiling, wickedly or otherwise. In fact, their faces didn't show any malice at all. Instead, all there was…was confusion.

"…did I stutter? DO IT!" Mod yelled. The Zap Pack looked at Mod, and a look of confusion crossed Mod's own features. "WHAT?"

"But master…they're the Titans." Blast said.

"Why?" Blaze asked, and Robin's eyes widened a bit. Blaze's tone was actually underscored with pleading.

A fact that clearly registered to Mad Mod as well, as his anger went from restrained to raging.

"I KNOW IT'S THE TEEN TITANS! I MAY BE OLD AND DYING OF A BRAIN TUMOR BUT I'M NOT GOING BLIND! DESTROY THEM! WIPE THEM FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH!"

"….but…" Blast said.

"Stop thinking about your care and admiration for them! It's false! It doesn't exist! I created it for you to play a role, just like I created every aspect of your beings! It only exists because I said it existed! And now I'm saying it doesn't! STRIKE! KILL THEM!" Mad Mod raged, stomping on his platform.

As Robin leapt and struck, his fingers snapping out as Robin yanked out his metal disc weapons, the little projectiles sprouting between his digits before he hurled them all rapidly directly at Mad Mod, hoping and praying he'd get one hit through and that if the head was cut off, the body would die.

The Zap Pack were caught off guard by the sudden attack, but in the end that meant nothing, as the discs all slammed into a shield that was surrounding Mod's platform, the invisible barrier rippling as Mod yelped and jumped from the attack. When he recovered, he looked even madder.

"DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID? IF I HADN'T HAD A SECOND SHIELD…ARGH! ATTACK! THAT'S AN ORDER! ATTACK NOW OR I'LL FRY YOUR AI'S LIKE CHIPS IN A PAN!" Mod yelled, as he lifted his cane and appeared to press something on it, or at least gave the indication he would do so.

"….yes sir." Blast said, as he turned towards the Titans, his voice heavy with regret. Robin narrowed his eyes.

"Guys, I know, BUT SNAP OUT OF IT! ONE WAY OR ANOTHER HERE COMES TROUBLE!" Robin yelled, trying to get his teammates out of the state of shock they were still surely in. Robin was still trying to process this terrible surprise himself, but he'd had training in not letting surprises paralyze you. The rest of his team didn't, and even if the Zap Pack seemed reluctant to fight, that didn't change the reality of their strength…

And they came for them.

But, as Robin had crossed his fingers for, they didn't come at top speed. If they'd flown at the four of them as fast as they could, Robin, Beast Boy, and Terra would have been reduced to smears on the wall within a second, and Starfire wouldn't have lasted much longer.

But they didn't zap like their namesake. Their flight, hesitant and almost penitent, was easy to see coming.

And even then, Robin had to force himself to pull out his metal staff.

Not because he was afraid. No. Because he had his own regrets. Life hadn't been getting better. It was as nasty as it had ever been; it was just getting better at being sneaky about it. The light at the end of the tunnel had turned out to be a train that was roaring down the tracks at Robin, and not only was his boot caught in the metal trail, someone had taken a blowtorch to it and welded it to the tracks. And someone had filled his boot with crazy glue beforehand. All in all, the situation was horrendously bad.

He knew about such situations. He'd been trained to predict them and avoid them. And yet here he was, in the thick of one, at the receiving end of people he'd genuinely come to like.

Damn it, someone up there had an immensely sick sense of humor.

But in the end, Robin did what he was trained to do. He faced down his foe and he combated it to the best of his ability.

And so did his fellows, as he felt the rush of air as Starfire took off into the sky, as well as sensed the motion as Beast Boy moved away in some animal form, Terra either being carried by him or right by his side, as Bolt and Blaze broke off from the charge and flew to either side out of Robin's vision, leaving just Blast, who still looked like he wanted to be doing anything else then this.

But he struck anyway…in a slow, choreographed style Robin could see coming a mile away, as he jumped out of the way.

And that STILL barely proved to be enough, as Blast's blow rang through Robin's ears, his fist impacting the ground so hard it shook the whole building and ripped several square feet of the metal floor up from the mass center like it was made of paper instead of steel. Robin felt the force shockwave impact him and let it flip him over as he landed, even as Blast pulled his fist out of the ground.

"STOP HITTING THE FLOOR!" Mod bellowed from his perch. "You want to kill us all?"

"…I…" Blast said to himself as he looked up at Mod, and then back down at Robin.

As Birdarangs flew at the child robot, as Robin went to the well even though he knew it was dry, hurling the whirling red projectiles at Blast. Maybe he'd hit a vital spot. Maybe Blast would think they wouldn't be able to hurt him and they would. Maybe he'd have an allergic reaction to them despite being a robot.

Or maybe the child would use the marksman techniques Robin and his friends had helped teach him as he blew each projectile out of the air, reducing them to shattered metallic dust in several quick finger points.

But the joy still refused to come, that particular gleam of cruelty, but neither did Blast's face go blank. Indeed, the look of rueful sadness remained.

"I'm sorry Robin. But this is pointless. The master had planned this for…forever, really. You can't win."

Robin narrowed his eyes, as he spun the staff in his hand, trying to fight down the fear and despair. Refusing to give into it.

"All right Edgar. You're a robot. A robot made so lifelike that it even fooled me. Doesn't that fact make you think?"

"My thoughts are…ultimately irrelevant. I must do what the master orders. I have no choice." Blast said sadly.

"Well Blast, if you honestly meant anything you said to me, then you'll understand… neither do I." Robin said, and charged.

Blast did not look away as Robin made his attack, as Robin lunged and stabbed at Blast's head, hoping to find an opening, intentional or not…

Blast caught his lancing staff, and with a quick jerk upward Robin went flying backwards, Blast's strength making the lever motion so fierce it acted more like Robin had been struck instead of disarmed. Robin hit the ground and slid back several feet, never looking away from Blast as he took the staff in both hands.

"I did." Blast said, as Robin waited for him to bend the staff, or tie it in a knot.

Blast did something even worse, as his hands pulsed with blue energy that refracted across the staff length, and then it shattered like glass, the weapon reduced to so much metal powder within a second. Robin goggled at the action, some kind of concentrated concussive/erupting effect, and an affect that had treated the hardened and battle-prepared metal of his staff like it was a cheap dollar store cup.

"I do." Blast said.

And then he flew at Robin again.

And Blast was not alone in his expression, as Starfire confronted Blaze in the air, the alien's intense look abruptly fading. Of all the Titans, Starfire's innate nature had made this cruel charade cut her the deepest…but Starfire had been hurt before. When she'd been forcibly taken from her parents. When she'd been locked in machines by grinning, gleeful alien sadists. On battlefields on Earth and out among the stars. She did not like pain. She did what she could to ensure she and others did not experience it.

But she had learned to live with it, and not let it control her.

Yet, Blaze's expression gave her pause: the little girl looked like she wanted to cry, but could not. Starfire had never fought a foe like that. She'd engaged in battle with enemies who believed her weak and hence a waste of their time, but that was light years away from a foe who honestly looked like she'd rather be anywhere then here.

"…must you be my enemy?" Starfire asked.

"…Yes." Blaze said, the word sounding like it the hardest thing the superpowered android would ever have to do. "…forgive me."

"…I do." Starfire found herself saying…as the intensity returned, the harshness of the situation once again impacting Starfire's features. "But I will give NO QUARTER."

"I would not expect you to." Blaze replied.

Starfire's hands blazed with green energy, firing blast after blast at Blaze, but the girl's small, quick form darted around them. The blasts impacted on the massive quark gluon plasma generator…or rather, impacted on a force field erected around it that kept the attacks from damaging the machine.

Starfire was far too caught up in battle to notice such a thing, as Blaze countered, throwing her own fireballs. Starfire's own dodging skills kicked in, as she swerved around the attacks and zipped around Blaze before the young girl knew what was happening, seizing her from behind as she activated her heat-generating side effect of her energy powers, hoping that maybe if she added even more heat to the temperatures the robot girl was surely already generating, she could disrupt something delicate in the inner workings of…

No dice, as Blaze squirmed out of her grip, reached up, grabbed Starfire, and hurled her over her head. But even as she was thrown, Starfire switched tactics, as she went with the motion and flipped herself upside down as she refocused the energy, her eyes glowing as a blast of green power shot out, striking Blaze and causing a powerful explosion.

Starfire flipped herself back upright as the fire ball expanded…and then suddenly contracted as Blaze reappeared, unharmed, as she called the blast of fire to her, refocusing it into a fireball even bigger then her that she shot directly at Starfire.

Far too slowly: Starfire dodged it with ease. And she had a feeling that was the point.

But she couldn't slow her hand. Not the way things were, as she flew forward and crashed into Blaze, the two tumbling across the open warehouse air.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Beast Boy said in his usual high pitched scream as Bolt zipped down before them: unlike Starfire he still had some trouble regaining his metaphorical feet when the rug was yanked out from under him. At least his powers didn't subconsciously turn him into a chicken again.

"Surrender. Please." Bolt said solemnly.

"…no! You think we're just going to lie down and let Mod win?" Terra blurted out in classic fool's courage.

"No. But I…I don't want to hurt you. But…I'm sorry Beast Boy, Terra, but even with the generator devoted to other tasks reducing us to a quarter power, there is no animal on the face of this planet that can match up to me…" Bolt said as he floated slowly forward.

"Let's just see!" Beast Boy snapped, finding his daring (or maybe just some bravado) as he turned into a lion and lunged violently at Bolt.

Bolt didn't fry him with electricity, or smash him into a dead sack of meat with a blow. Instead he just flew to the side in a quick jerk and Beast Boy missed him entirely.

Terra gasped, and then her eyes narrowed as she thrust out her arms.

"Please don't. The generator." Bolt said, pointing: his tone actually made Terra pause. "It's delicate. If you cause an earthquake, or rip up the ground for rocks, you'll probably disrupt its operations…that will be far worse for your city then this lamentable situation."

Had it been a taunt, Terra would have thrown caution to the wind. But Bolt's tone…no, it couldn't be genuine. He was a fraud, a trick from an insane old man, he couldn't possibly want to protect anything but his master's hide…

"What I want is not a factor." Bolt said sadly, as Terra recoiled. Had he read her mind? Or just gauged it from her expression?…how could a robot do EITHER…?

And Beast Boy leapt on Bolt's back with a roar, trying to sink his claws and teeth into the small frame of the child.

It was somewhat obscure what Bolt did, it was so fast, but it was a simple motion: he flew up and down several feet as fast as he could.

The motion sent Beast Boy flying through the air like he'd stepped on the world's biggest spring, as he yowled in alarm…before he remembered just what species he was and landed on his feet.

"Heh. I always admired your creativity." Bolt said, as Beast Boy turned back to his human form, his face's expression of anger barely covering the fear.

"…wait…how can you be robots, when Blaze was down, I checked her, I felt a pulse, how…" Terra said, still having no idea which way was up.

"I'm sorry Terra. You erred: you checked for her supposed pulse with your thumb. You're not supposed to do that: the thumb has a somewhat prominent vein as well and you can mistake your own pulse for the victim's. Which is what you did, I'm afraid." Bolt said.

"…I guess I just suck, huh." Terra said in bitter desperation.

"No. Never." Bolt replied, and damned if he didn't sound genuine. "Never."

"Grahhhhhh." Beast Boy growled under his breath. "All this at a quarter power? Damn it…screw it, even though there's absolutely no chance of success, I'm going to defy logic and attack you ANYWAY!" Beast Boy snarled as he charged, turning into a tiger for a boost of speed…and then into a short-faced bear, an extinct species of the animal who was bigger and nastier then ever a polar bear, as he reared up in front of Bolt and put every bit of ferocious animal power he could behind a blow to the child's face. And this time, he didn't keep his claws sheathed.

The good news was, Bolt did not do the 'head snaps away and then slowly looks back' motion which indicated the attack was completely useless.

The bad news was, his face did not seem to suffer any damage.

The worse news was that Bolt went with the blow, spinning and lashing out with his leg.

The good news THERE was, his leg was far too short to actually hit Beast Boy. It was exceptionally good news, because if Bolt had actually struck Beast Boy with the kick he'd thrown, there would have been a very strong chance the changeling would have been broken in half.

The bad news was, the miss was intentional and had a secondary effect, as the sheer power of the limb, length aside, was enough to cause a drastic and potent disruption of the immediate air surrounding Beast Boy.

Which Bolt added to by spinning rapidly a few more times, as Beast Boy found an intense blast of wind suddenly twist up around and beneath him, the airstream manipulation proving powerful enough to throw even the massive form he was currently in up and through the air. And this form wasn't as adapt at proper landings.

Beast Boy thudded painfully to the ground, as Bolt stopped spinning…

And Terra jumped him from behind, desperation at the sheer ease Bolt had tossed aside Beast Boy doing what it had a bad habit of doing and blanking Terra's mind. Some people could think calmly and rationally when exposed to pressure all the time. Many more could do so, but not always. This was one of those occasions for Terra.

As the fact she could get the drop on Bolt seemingly made her forget his strength, not to mention his electrical abilities. But the most grievous sin her panic made her forget, if just briefly, was the fact that she was facing a ROBOT as Terra's attempted move was to put Bolt in a choke hold.

Some might have insulted her for such errors. But Bolt had no taste for it.

Instead, he simply shifted a bit…and flexed his body, tensing every artificial muscle he had as hard as he could.

With an average person, this small amount of force briefly eliminated slack, which could, if the person was big and strong enough, help them in breaking grips.

But Bolt was not an average person.

And the force that came off this motion was NOT small.

Which explains why Terra not only lost her grip, but lost gravity's hold on her, as she was sent flying backwards through the air like she'd been grabbed and thrown violently. Beast Boy, having turned back to human shape to switch forms and make another attack, was far too slow and distant to prevent the way Bolt broke Terra's grip, nor the end result.

As Terra slammed, back first, into the warehouse wall…

Except it wasn't the wall.

Walls, in theory, had no give: if they were subjected to a force beyond what they could handle, they were either damaged or broken. True, there were such setups like padded cells that did have various degrees of pliancy, but this was a deliberate design choice. On average, walls did not deflect force, they absorbed it.

But that was not the reaction when Terra hit the warehouse wall. She did not slam violently against it, or go through it. Instead, she found her momentum abruptly ceasing and then heading in another direction as she hit what was apparently another invisible force field that was layering the outside wall of the massive warehouse.

The good news here was, this prevented a possible unpleasant fate like a spinal injury, or worse.

The bad news was, the nature of the shield caused the impetus of the throw to be transferred back out in a downward snapping motion, and so instead of hitting the wall and then the floor with considerably less force, Terra found most of the changed momentum causing her to violently slam down into the ground.

Upper body first. Including, unfortunately, her face.

"TERRA!" Beast Boy yelled, as he sprinted over as a cheetah, turned human, and, after a quick check to make sure Terra's neck wasn't damaged (thank you Robin battlefield medic lessons), turned her over.

Terra's eyes were somewhat clear, but that fact didn't take much away from the ugly sight of her broken nose spurting blood out onto her face and shirt. She'd managed to absorb some of the impact with her arms (that and luck was the main reason she wouldn't need any expensive dentistry in the future, provided she survived), but she'd still taken a hellacious blow, as inside her head Terra was only somewhat aware of her damaged nasal cavity, more focused on the dark, shifting colors that were dancing in front of the eyes of her concussed head.

"I didn't want to do that." Bolt said, as Beast Boy glared up at him. "Really, none of us do."

"Oh cram it! If you actually mean that, then STOP!" Beast Boy yelled, as he pulled Terra up and rested her against the shield, which did not seem to repel her without her activating an outside force against it.

"…I can't." Bolt said.

"…Then you'll PAY." Beast Boy snarled, as he turned into an ostrich and ran at Bolt.

Bolt did not move or reply…as Beast Boy's form shifted and turned into another extinct animal, the South American 'Phorusrhacidae' or 'terror bird', a ten-foot flightless carnivore made all the more fearsome by Beast Boy's display of temper, as Beast Boy turned his final steps into a hop and kicked Bolt with his deadly clawed foot as hard as he could.

The kick, in theory, could have sent a small car flying.

Bolt didn't move an inch.

"…..AKAKAKAKAKAOWOWOWOWOW!" Beast Boy yelped, momentarily forgotten himself as he turned back human and hopped up and down on one leg, holding his aching ankle from the foiled attack. Once, such a display would have brought a smile to Bolt's face.

Not this time. And he knew it.

"…I already am." Bolt said. Beast Boy finally stopped hopping, looked at Bolt once more…and then went into the extinct catalogue of animals again and turned into the 'megatherium' giant ground sloth, his twenty-foot height towering over Bolt as he swung a massive clawed paw at the child robot.

Robin's own fist and arm looked tiny and pointless by comparison, but you wouldn't know it looking at him, as his fist impacted on Blast's forearm. He may as well have been beating on a brick wall, but Robin didn't waver a bit, as he recoiled from the blow and slashed his foot out. Blast blocked again, but did not counter, seemingly content to let Robin wear himself out, or still suffering from severe guilt.

"You can't win Robin. Stop hurting yourself." Blast pleaded.

"Edgar, if I'd given up the who knows how many times I should have and have been told to, this city would have ceased to exist long before your master could pull off his little scam!" Robin retorted, as he punched at Blast again, and again, the child effortlessly stopping the blows. His technique was barely there, but his speed and unmovable nature made technique pretty much irrelevant.

"Such a fact's long lost on him." Blast replied.

"Color me surprised." Robin retorted, as he faked out Blast with another leg swing as he arched his leg up and then back and down, driving his heel towards Blast's head.

Blast caught him by the ankle, and then gave him what could be described by his standards as a 'gentle push'.

Said push sent Robin flying head over heels backwards, a motion he went with to keep Blast from tearing a muscle in his leg from the upward shove.

But even as he seemed helpless, Robin was anything but, as he landed on his hands while being tossed backwards and turned it into a flip, and even as his body righted itself Robin's hand blurred to his belt and snapped out, hurling a disc at Blast. And for once, the child didn't have the time or the reflexes to stop it properly, via his energy projectiles.

So it struck Blast instead, as ice erupted from the point of impact and flash-froze over his body, leaving him momentarily trapped as a frozen statue.

Robin knew he had four seconds tops before Blast got out of that, as he stopped his backward motion and charged, his hands blurring to his belt and then together as he yanked out two Birdarangs and slammed them together, the devices interlocking and expanding into his crimson sword…

Blast burst free of the ice.

Robin swung his sword down as hard and as fast as he could.

And Blast blurred a hand up, and the sword came to a dead stop as Blast caught it.

Between his primary and middle finger.

Robin's eyes widened, even as he instinctively tried to thwart the grip by pressing down…but all his strength didn't produce an iota of continued momentum.

Blast was looking at Robin, even as Robin furiously tried to do something, ANYTHING, to his trapped sword, but he couldn't pull it free, he couldn't twist it, he couldn't pull it back up, he couldn't even push it forward, like he was trying to loose Excalibur from the stone then pull it free from the grip a child could exert with two small digits (and he might be getting his myths mixed up, but that was a decidedly lesser problem). It was frozen, locked in place.

And the despair flared up inside Robin again. This was their power, even when (if Robin had overheard correctly, he was forever observing and deducting) it was reduced? Then how great would it be once Mod let them off their leash?

Blast almost seemed to answer his question, as he hung his head in shame.

And then he gave his wrist a quick twist and flick.

And Robin went flying like he'd been shot out of a cannon, bouncing along the ground several times before he regained control of himself, as Blast tossed the sword away and turned to look at Robin again.

"No." Robin said, cutting him off before he could ask again. "No. Never. Not even in the face of death."

And Robin hurled another projectile. Blast shot this one, but that was planned, as thick, noxious smoke erupted from the destroyed pellet and enveloped the child robot, as Robin reached behind himself and pulled out two small pieces of metal from his belt that expanded and twisted into twin metal tonfas, as Robin, even as the weapons were arming, went to his belt again and pulled out a rebreather, sticking it in his mouth as he ran into the smoke.

And from his platform, Mod watched with sadistic amusement. Did Robin actually think his little setup would help him at all? Unit ZP-1, Blast, didn't have to breathe, and his eyes could adjust to read heat, motion, or electrical signals: the smoke would provide Robin no cover at all. And even if that wasn't the case, Robin still didn't have a chance. He was a snotty nosed punk, and Mod had built a little god, loyal in the end only to him…

Though he seemed to have programmed them perhaps a touch too well: his decision to make them their roles was clearly clashing with his orders to destroy their so-called heroes. It annoyed Mod: when he'd requested AI help from Morrow and his ilk, he should have put that into consideration. Well, that was all in the past, and this whole plan was to ensure Mod would be around for the future.

Indeed, even as Blast defended himself from Robin's new assault, Mod realized that yes, as much as he wanted to stay up here and watch the slow destruction of his enemies, if he did there was always a chance something could go wrong. That was why he'd diverted some of the power of his generator (which was operational but not currently up at full capacity) for the shields: one to protect the generator, another one inside it to protect his platform, and a third that he'd erected upon the Titans' entrance that prevented their escape.

Something occurred to Mod then: while his personal shield kept everything out besides air and light (and it absorbed energy, so laser attacks on him would be futile: all their power would be drained away before it got to him, no more effective then one of those annoying pens young punks were always shining in your eyes), the ones on the generator and around the walls of the warehouse operated on the 'block organic' setup that had trapped that idiot Grip or whatever his stupid name was in Mod's little house of tricks (they also absorbed energy, as evidenced by Starfire's starbolts). But while that would keep out most offensives…it wouldn't block them all, specifically Robin's weapons. Hell, Mod had already dodged a bullet when Robin had taken a shot at him instead of the machine…

Mod's face grew dark; curse it all, he'd nearly murdered his brain trying to account for every single variable, how could he have missed such an obvious one? He was already smarting from his earlier slipup of giving that brat his actual origin instead of the lies that were 'proper', how could he not consider such a necessary factor? Probably because he assumed the Zap Pack would render that possibility moot, but as demonstrated their 'method acting' programming was clearly clashing with his orders…

Damn it all! Mad Mod diverted his attention from the battle as he did some math in his head. Might he be able to divert some of the power from the chronological reversal to…no, he'd worked out to immensely precise detail just how the power created by his device would have to be divided to sufficiently empower the Zap Pack, erect the three shields (which included the various hiding and blocking effects Mod had utilized earlier), and properly drain and transfer the chronological life energy from Mod's kidnap victims to him in a permanent, irreversible fashion, and there was no leftover or leeway left in it. And his quark gluon energy process was NOT a technique that was friendly to any 'overclocking' attempt. In fact it was so delicate that ANY status beyond 'stable' was risking trouble Mod didn't even want to contemplate, which was in the end the reason why he didn't want the machine to be damaged, especially at full power.

Which meant he'd just have to eliminate the variable another way: get the whole thing over with.

Mod grit his teeth, angered at not getting to witness the final breaking of the Titans at as much of his leisure as he'd anticipated, but he swallowed it down after a few seconds. The end result was all that mattered. He wasn't some sick rapist who kept committing crime after crime because the fantasy could never match the reality, he could deal with it. Hell, when it was done, he'd probably think he was being silly.

And so he turned away from the Titans' futile attempts to win, either in battle or his creation's minds…which made another thought occur to Mod. The Zap Pack weren't responding as he wished, mainly because he'd done such a detailed job at making their false roles one with who they were…and he grimaced. He still needed a small bit of time, and he had a feeling that what he was about to do would draw the Titans' attention, and if the ZP units were slowed by their damnable programming…

No, he wouldn't take that chance, no when he was so close. He'd just have to activate that certain setting on his cane.

The Zap Pack were expressing 'remorse' at their actions, clearly not wanting to do them in, their 'love' for their 'heroes' banging up against their true nature. And with the height of technology their AI's operated at, some might believe they could evolve beyond their programming. But Mod knew better: he'd been an engineer, and he knew that you could put as many wings as you wanted on a car, it didn't make it a plane. At the core of their existence, the Zap Pack were still machines, computers, tools, and they had to do what they were told. Everything else was the nonsense of fiction.

And with the master control setting Mod began to activate on his cane, all hesitancy or holding back would be eliminated, or at least reduced down to a level so miniscule it might as well have been nonexistent. If Mod gave an order now, it would be obeyed immediately, without question.

The problem WAS, the AI's of the Zap Pack were so complicated that Mod had never gotten around to coding such a command program so it worked exclusively for him. It was essentially generic, and what that meant was that if by some utter miracle the Titans somehow reached him and got his cane away from him…

No, that was impossible. He'd stacked the deck too well, and besides, how would they ever know that? Their mind readers were gone, and there was a difference between great deductive reasoning and miraculous answer out of your arse yanking.

That calculation of odds didn't make Mod go back and resume watching the 'fight' though: he'd thought for sure the Titans were helpless the last two times and look what had happened. Someone favored them, that was for certain. But not this time.

As Mod, his cane finished programming, tucked it under his arm as he went over to part of his computer setup: the platform was basically designed so the program computers were arranged in a horseshoe shape around the sides and back of the platform: in the middle was a currently blank space (but not for long) and a little after that, roughly between the 'blank space' and the place where Mod had been standing to watch was a small hole in the ground.

First, the guests of honor. Mod's robots had redesigned the warehouse once he'd arrived here: now it essentially had just three areas. Those were the main giant room where the generator was, the 'back door subbasement/hall/stairway' that Mod had tricked the Titans into using as a supposed 'sneaking entrance'…and the room directly below the machine. Specifically, directly below the section of floor that was exposed by the horseshoe section seemingly removed from the generator. There was a very specific reason for this.

Mod didn't want the Titans to miss the show, as he typed in a rapid series of commands and hit an enter key.

And the floor split open, as the room beneath began to rise up…and yells and screams drifted up from the hole.

A fact that immediately caught Robin's attention as he leapt away from Blast, having realized himself the smoke didn't aid him in the slightest. But to Robin's advantage, Blast himself glanced in the direction of the noise. The only one who didn't was a still out of it Terra.

As the kidnapped children emerged from the darkness, as Robin's eyes widened. None of the children were free: every single one was strapped to an upright table-like platform arranged in a semi-circular pattern on the section of floor they rose up on (for one crazy moment the setup made Robin have a flash of Stonehenge before time wore the rock structure down to a mere shadow of its former self). The degree of confinement varied, but it was clear that none of the children would be escaping from their bondage any time soon, though none of them seemed to realize it as most were crying, yelling, screaming, and generally making a racket. Then again, one could hardly blame them.

The noise greatly irritated Mod, but then again, every aspect of the kids did that to him. Even if he didn't hate children by default, the whole process of taking them, keeping them fed, healthy, and sanitary, transporting them, and all the other troubles this ridiculous setup had required had driven him half-mad (or even more mad then he already was). Even using various hypnosis devices hadn't lessened the strain enough for Mod's taste, and he couldn't knock them out now (they'd been unconscious when he and his robots had earlier strapped the children in) because the process worked best with conscious beings, another intense annoyance. Well, they were about to pay him back for every bit of the vexation they'd given him, with interest.

"Oh no." Robin said, looking at the sight: some of the kids had managed to see him and were screaming and begging for help.

Robin would have done something, except Starfire beat him to it.

"NO!" She yelled, as she pulled away from Blaze and streaked across the air, heading straight for the captive children…and slamming hard against the shield that blocked access to them as it did when it came to the generator.

"NO! LET THEM GO! LET THEM GO!" Starfire screamed, hammering on the shield with all her might. But she made no headway at all. That didn't slow her assault in the slightest, as she continued hammering on the shield with all of her strength…

As Blaze flew after her.

"STAR-!" Robin began to yell, and then Blast was flying at him, and Robin was forced to retreat away from his attacker, lest Blast actually try to connect with an attack this time.

But the half name warning was enough, as well as the distinctive low whooshing noise that fire consuming oxygen rapidly could make, as Starfire whirled around and dodged the blast of flame Blaze had shot at her. The fact that she'd essentially tried to back-shot Starfire was somewhat negated by the strong audio cue, but that wasn't what was fueling Starfire's rage at the moment.

"LET THEM GO!" She yelled. "Confront me if you must, but they are innocent! They have done NOTHING, to you or your master!"

"I know." Blaze said quietly. The resigned, if sad, dismissal in the tone just made Starfire angrier, as her eyes glowed bright emerald.

"…if you will not rebel against your design, then I will use it IN ANOTHER FASHION!" Starfire yelled, as she flew at Blaze so fast she actually caught the child robot off guard, as she seized the girl and whirled around, attempting to shove/hurl her into the generator to gum up the works.

But Blaze put the brakes on, and Starfire stopped dead: all her titanic strength spiked even higher by her rage was still not enough to overcome the force Blaze could put out.

A factor driven cruelly home as Blaze shoved back in a motion that could even be consigned as gentle, and Starfire went hurling back through the air like she'd been struck with the axiomatic wrecking ball. She slammed on her own brakes and tore at Blaze again, the young child flying forward to meet her, less to actively confront Starfire then to keep her away from the machine.

Robin growled low in his throat, spinning his tonfas around as he tried to find an opening or distract Blast in some way. But the child's intense power negated his every effort, and from a glance Robin could see the same held true for Beast Boy.

Mad Mod, on the other hand, was still hard at work, having moved over to another computer to begin phase two: initializing the transfer setup. And so he did, as a large part of the bottom of his overhead platform, hidden in the shadows, detached and lowered down, a mass of spherical computers from which mechanical tendrils emerged, flowing down and attaching to the tops of the children's tables, a fact that somehow made them scream louder: Mod winced and cursed under his breath. Just a few more minutes of it, he could take it…

The spherical setup, in actuality his modified and improved Chronological Energy Transference Device, opened up on the top, revealing a mass of crystal-like setups. These were its energy receivers; energy would be converted by its mechanisms into the proper design for chronological energy transfer. With it activated, operational, and ready to go, Mod went over to the last bank of computers, typing at them.

Sections of the generator that surrounded the terrified children began opening up, revealing strange projecting, manipulating, and focusing mechanical setups. A few also extended down from Mod's platform, as it prepared to harness the energy and fed it into the improved CETD. With that done, Mod pulled a lever on the computer bank and turned around.

As the center of the platform opened up, another large plug-shaped computer emerging from within it, as Mod went over to it and began the second to last stage: turning the generator's power to its maximum setting and harnessing the energy to feed into the CETD.

Robin didn't need to have Mod in sight to clue in that that was the case, as he literally FELT it as the generator's power began to increase, the mechanisms within drawing more energy from the gluon plasma, inconceivable amounts of energy, a fact Robin felt as a low, intense hum in his teeth and joints, the air literally singing with the sheer power Mod was harnessing.

And then it bloomed into existence, between the CETD above the kids and below Mod's platform, a brilliantly shining, fragmenting mass of energy, a snowflake of all colors. Robin had no real idea WHAT it was (a side effect of such energy harnessing? A indicator point to allow easier transference? The 'heart of the power', manifested in a place where it was needed? Something else entirely?), but he knew it meant that he had seconds at most before it all went to hell. And this time, it didn't look like there would be a way out.

But Blast was between him and the machine, and Robin hadn't made an iota of difference in his switching of weapons and styles: even when caught off guard the blow did nothing to Blast's body. And Robin knew that he could have been in his strength-boosting Red-X bodysuit (before it was stolen anyway) jacked to the gills on Venom, and that still would have been the case. Most would have called Robin insane for even considering going hand to hand with one of the 'Zap Pack' to begin with: the only reason Robin wasn't paste on the ground was because Blast had hardly attacked and choreographed each motion so tellingly a normal person could have avoided it.

But Robin wasn't insane. He was thinking. And planning.

Putting all the little bits together.

Like how the Zap Pack were hesitating. And how they were, according to what he'd overheard, operating on reduced power. And how said reduced power didn't seem to be the reason they weren't able to give their devastating all.

How his attempted attack on Mod had not been stopped by the force field that apparently surrounded the generator. It had gone over the machine and past that edge, stopping a few feet beyond when it hit another shield. The attack he'd made with his metal projectile rings, when Starfire's energy attacks and punches had been unable to damage or pierce through it.

How Mod had gotten angry at Blast's ground jarring punch, as if it risked damaging the machine, and how that would clearly be A Bad Thing.

How his smoke hadn't worked.

And how while he may have taught the Zap Pack a fair number of the tricks of the trade, it was far from teaching them everything he knew.

And that, Robin knew, was the only chance he had.

As he twirled his tonfas one last time and swung them both at Blast, hitting the child's blocking arm, even as Beast Boy and Starfire themselves furiously struggled to make any sort of headway against their superiorly powered opponents. Robin bore down on the boy, his face a mask of angry intensity…

And Blast countered as he wished, pushing back slightly and sending Robin flying. He tumbled across the ground, seemingly losing his tonfas…

And leapt to his feet, as he went for his utility belt…

"Robin…" Blast said, his low dismayed voice hardly audibly over the children's screams and the generator's intense hum, the shimmering snowflake of energy growing larger and brighter as Mod moved around the computer in the center of the platform, stabilizing and manipulating it. He was almost done. Once this was done, he could finally bid farewell to those rotten kids, of all stripes. Hell, the stupid bastards kept screaming, didn't they realize that this wasn't going to hurt? Yes, it would be an unnatural, terrifying, traumatizing experience, but at least it wasn't going to HURT…

Robin gave no reply.

As he hurled the pellets at Blast, the projectiles exploding before Blast could shoot them, Robin using up all his remaining smoke bombs to envelop the area in front of the massive generator in thick, blinding fog…

A factor that actually caught Mod's attention, mostly on the fact Robin was doing the same trick twice.

Which didn't mean anything to Blast, whose electronic eyes saw Robin quite clearly as he ran…pulled out his grapple…and fired it into the air, aiming for the ceiling, the unshielded ceiling, as his 'hook' end penetrated the roof and sprang out to firm Robin's grip…

As Blast realized that whatever Robin was planning, he was going airborne to do it, as he flew up to intercept…

And found that the line wasn't retracting, bringing a brightly colored teenager into the air, instead it was EXTENDING, the line shifting as Robin ran across the ground holding it, as Blast turned around and looked down, finding Robin running through the smoke, and on impulse he dashed back down to intercept before Robin could reach the machine, drawing in close within a second…

As Robin whirled around and thrust the grip part of his grapple out. Part of the way the device worked was utilizing small magnets in careful manipulation of the metal wire, and with two quick button presses Robin had modified those magnets.

As the grip clamped onto Blast's chest, whatever inner workings he had that had negated magnetism before for his play-act either not prepared or suffering from the lesser power the robot now had (and even if it hadn't worked, Robin would have just done an immediate toss and twist around Blast's shoulder), and even as Blast's eyes widened at this unexpected tactic Robin pressed a button on the grip as he released it.

And the grapple retracted, yanking Blast up into the air and away from Robin, even as the Teen Wonder whirled around and brought his hands to his belt…

As Mod's mouth abruptly went as dry as paper: Robin had somehow given himself a few seconds opening at the machine and considering who he was a few seconds was all he'd…!

"NO!"

Robin yanked out twin explosive discs.

"STOP THEM!"

And threw them, even as Mod's cry was ringing in his ears.

And the blow slammed into his back, hurling Robin face first onto the ground as he gasped from the suddenness of it. What had THAT…

And then he heard and felt the detonation of his weapons as they struck the machine, as Robin looked up from the ground, seeing the explosions as they bloomed…

And abruptly died. Robin's eyes widened. That should not have happened. There should have been alarms, and sparks, and possible follow up explosions. That was what he'd been aiming for: with how delicate the generator seemed to be surely hitting it with explosive weaponry would break it…!

Break it, yes.

But the discs hadn't found it.

As the smoke cleared, revealing Bolt and Blaze in front of the generator, their arms and hands smoking from blocking the discs.

As Robin realized what had knocked him over. Windshear. From Bolt and Blaze's almost instantaneous transport from where they'd been to where they were now. It had been so fast it was just then that Starfire and Beast Boy were realizing their sparring partners were gone, as their heads jerked over to look at the machine.

And Robin felt a deep, cold dread seize him, even as Blast lowered himself down to join his teammates, having easily pulled himself free from the magnetic grip Robin had attached to him once he was aware of it.

A dread Mod relished as he lowered his cane from his mouth. The little bastard had thought he'd figured it all out, had thought he'd come up with a scheme that would thwart ol' Moddie again. But as Mod had mused earlier, there were great powers of deduction, and then there was miraculous guessing that ended in fortunate results. And as great as Robin was at the former and as prone as heroes could be to the latter, neither was absolute. Robin hadn't figured out the new ordering setting of his cane.

Though that reality was dawning on Robin's face. He'd thought the Zap Pack's apparent clash with Mod's orders would let him slip through. But Mod had apparently considered that too, and activated something in his cane that had not only made them obey instantly, but _instantaneously_, like the machines they were.

And if Mod actually had something like that…

Despite the mask, Mod could read Robin's face well enough as these thoughts crossed his mind, as well as the realizations from them. He smirked to himself.

Then he brought his cane up to his mouth again.

"Destroy them."

And this time, there was no hesitation, as Bolt and Blaze took off across the warehouse sky at Starfire and Beast Boy, as Blast swooped down at Robin.

Robin could see the sadness on the child's face. So life-like, so very much like a real boy…

But with a heart of steel and a hand that wasn't his to command, as Blast fired twin shots from said hands.

Robin managed to dodge a bit. That 'bit' was not enough, as the explosion erupted on the ground right in front of him, raking his body with shrapnel as the shockwave sent him flying, bouncing along the ground.

And Mod smirked once more, and returned to the center computer, as he typed in the last commands and looked at the screens. Everything was working perfectly. It was time to bring it all together.

As Starfire charged at Blaze, hurling Starbolts with wild, desperate abandon, but Blaze, after dodging a few, countered by throwing out her hands and firing tiny, intense balls of fire about the size of an orange, dozens and dozens at a time. Starfire found her Starbolts being intercepted at the same time she was being counter-attacked, explosions blasting across the warehouse air. The alien tried to keep up, but Blaze's attack was overwhelming, as stray balls of fire impacted on Starfire's shoulder, hip, and left shin, burning her skin as she yelled and flew backwards, trying to defend herself, but for every attack she threw Blaze fired ten in return, as Starfire refocused her energy from projectiles to a defensive shield and tried to weather the storm…

As Beast Boy yelped and escaped the ground by becoming an eagle as Bolt flew down and finally used his electrical powers, sending a blast of electricity that would have turned Gar into a spasming wreck if it had hit him or the ground near him (fortunately it dissipated before it struck the still down and out Terra).

"Oh so you're finally shooting are we? FINE! THE GLOVES ARE OFF KID!" Beast Boy yelled as he swooped above Bolt…

And turned into a Brachiosaurus, his massive form filling the open area of the warehouse as he plunged down towards Bolt with his massive flat feet. The offensive maneuver was even more impressive considering the time Beast Boy had had to calculate if he could actually FIT the body of such a massive dinosaur into the space available let alone use it properly as an offensive weapon (the last time he'd done a similar tactic, he'd been outside, but then again, Gar Logan knew his animals. His knowledge might have been shaky in other areas, but he definitely knew his animals). Mad Mod's jaw fell as Beast Boy slammed down on Bolt with all four of his joined-together feet, even as the scream boiled up from within him at the possible consequences of such a heavy animal crashing down onto the warehouse floor…

As Beast Boy landed.

With no crash, as his long neck and tail jerked down from the impact, as Mad Mod reeled back, clutching his chest. He looked over at the screens on his computer: no disruptions. Had he actually…

"What the…!" Beast Boy said, as he tried to use his long neck to see what the hell had happened.

Robin could see, from where he was getting up, and like Mod's had a second ago, his mouth went dry.

Bolt was underneath Beast Boy's massive form…actually holding the saurian up off the ground. Robin was too far away to tell if it was a strain or not…

Until Bolt began moving, actually GETTING UP while holding Beast Boy above him, the green changeling so shocked he didn't try and do something like stamp his feet, or step off Bolt, or anything that might have made the lifting harder, as Robin goggled at the fact that even at considerably reduced strength the Zap Pack unit was still lifting 50 plus TONS…

As the downside of Beast Boy's plan became suddenly and painfully apparent, as Bolt activated whatever it was within him that let him manipulate electricity and unleashed it full force on Beast Boy, the changeling yelling and screaming as his body was wracked with the burning, disruptive energy. His mass and hide were probably the only things that saved his life, but that didn't matter much as the electricity also disrupted his abilities, Beast Boy returned to his humanoid form in Bolt's arms, as the child dumped him on the ground, his green body twitching.

Even as Starfire, trying so hard to withstand the assault Blaze was hammering her with, explosions blasting around her as she was forced back…until she ran out of room, her back slamming against the shield as she put all her effort into resisting, the shots forcing her back…

And abruptly cutting off.

As Starfire found the reflective nature that had injured Terra's face being brought to bear on her, as the force field repelled her forward without Blaze's concentrated attack pushing her back, catching her completely off guard as she was thrown back the way she'd come, as she tried to dispel her shield and get her bearings…

As Blaze swooped in and thrust out her hand, and Starfire's eyes went as wide as saucers as terrible pain erupted in her chest, and she coughed and hacked violently as Blaze actually IGNITED THE AIR WITHIN HER LUNGS, causing her to exhale flames as she was spontaneously burned from within and robbed of precious oxygen. Only the fact that Starfire was exhaling and the oxygen content within her lungs was minimal, as well as her alien biology, saved her from fatal injury, but she was rendered vulnerable from her overwhelming coughing as well as the pain from the fact she'd just had her lungs essentially set on fire.

Which left her wide open for Blaze, as she swooped in and backhanded Starfire with an open palm, sending Starfire slamming into the ground, the alien dislocating her shoulder as her arm impacted just before her head, stars and bright colors blasting across her eyes as she was knocked near-senseless.

Within several seconds, Robin watched both his remaining teammates fall.

And yet, despite their lacking of hesitation this time…it was clear from the Zap Pack's expressions they were hurt as much as the Titans, if not more.

As Blast flew up and before Robin, as Robin slowly finished getting up, his body a mass of aches and pains.

As he reached behind himself and pulled out his backup staff.

"You really don't give up." Blast said sadly.

"I'm a man of my word." Robin said.

And suddenly Blast was in front of him, his hands igniting with blue power.

"I wish I was."

And Blast slammed his fist into his open palm, and Robin found his body being hammered by a radiated shockwave so intense that it felt like all his bones were turning to liquid, as he was thrown backwards, losing his staff as he crashed and bounced across the warehouse floor, before coming to a stop, not moving.

And up on the platform, Mod chuckled nastily to himself. It had taken a bit longer for mostly unexpected reasons, but it had still been a grand show.

The Zap Pack looked up at him, their faces blank.

"…finish it." Mod said. Had Robin had any sense at the time, he might have felt relieved that Mod did not speak the order into his cane.

The reason Mod didn't do so was because he was occupied with other tasks, as he made one last check of his computer's readouts. Everything was fine. Even the kidnapped children had gone quiet, probably due to the shock of realizing their heroes would NOT be saving the day.

No time like the present to ensure the future, as Mod pressed one final button.

And the energy of the 'quark snowflake' began to feed into the CETD, powering it up to prepare to transfer the energies from the children, as the bottoms of the restraint-tables opened and new metallic tendrils emerged as the children began screaming again, as another section of the floor opened in front of all the children and a golden rod-like object about the size of a person slid out, its top a circular diamond-like crystal.

Mod checked the readings one last time, and then he sighed and braced himself. Now for the hard part, as he lifted his cane and pressed several buttons.

And the youth charge he'd absorbed earlier from a homeless person was dissipated, and Mod found himself old again, his stylish mod clothing hologram replaced by his usual attire of slacks, shirt, and tweed jacket…as the pain came, the intense pressure in his head, as reality suddenly didn't seem so firm and certain. Mod staggered for a bit as his body reeled under the sheer degree the tumor had rotted his brain, but he forced himself to stay cogent. He couldn't pass out NOW, not after everything, and if he didn't trigger the process the power would overload.

All he had to do…was reach the small hole in the platform…and insert his cane.

And Mad Mod started to do just that, staggering across the platform, the distance of a few feet now seeming like several miles.

As Robin coughed and spat blood, trying to force his aching body up, looking up into the face of Blast. Bolt and Blaze were behind him, apparently frozen in indecision, struggling with Mod's final order, one they could resist but not ultimately defy.

"…you don't…have to do this…" Robin whispered.

"It's why we are." Blast replied.

"No…it's what Mod wants you to be…but…he…he made you to be heroes…maybe you're wrong…in those thoughts…"

"We can't defy the master." Blast said.

"We tried." Bolt said.

"We failed." Blaze finished.

"We are, in the end, only what he wants us to be." Blast said, as he lifted a hand, a finger glowing bright blue.

As Mod reached the hole, staggered a bit…and then, with a wicked smile of triumph, slammed the cane down.

And the CETD activated, as shimmering energy shot down from it along the tendrils and enveloped the children, encasing them in glistening fields as they screamed, the energy reaching into them and withdrawing a precious force that lay within their very beings, a force it transferred down into the wires at the bottom of the tables and ran it to the golden focusing rod, which lit up…and fired a beam of white power straight up into the platform.

And Mod found the enhanced, permanent energies flowing into him. It was like a bolt of lighting, as he went rigid, his eyes as wide as they could go, as the energies poured through him, starting the careful process of invigorating his aged, dying cells and erasing the deadly poisoned ones in his head. Mod shook under the power: one got pleasure in sexual release from chemicals in the brain, and athletes could prompt a similar flood while exerting themselves, the so-called 'runner's high', but this was better than both combined, a sensation beyond what any human could experience.

If the many explorers seeking it had actually found the Fountain of Youth, perhaps this is what they might have felt when its waters passed their lips.

Robin was aware that Mod was sucking out the youth of the children, and he was fully aware death was staring him in the face…and yet, at the moment, that was not his concern, as he looked up at Blast…who turned his head away, as if he couldn't bare to witness what he was about to do.

"…No! Damn it! NO!" Robin hissed, as he managed to push himself up, a motion that made Blast look at him again…as Robin used what was left of his strength to reach up and rip off his mask, the spirit gum variant used to keep it on taking some of his skin with it, as the Zap Pack's eyes widened at this fact.

"You want to kill me, hence proving you're just what Mod says you are, instead of what you want to be? Then you look in my eyes, damn it. Look in them and see your deeds, and do it without hesitation. If THAT'S what you are. Come on then. Do it. DO IT!" Robin yelled.

Blast looked like his heart was breaking, but the glow on his finger only increased…

As Mod, his senses finally returning as he started getting somewhat used to the chrono-energy slow-but-permanent transference process, looked on in rapt anticipation…

Robin did not avert his gaze from Blast's.

As the noise of the car's roaring engine suddenly sounded, overcoming all the background noise for just a brief moment, as the Zap Pack's, Robin's, and Mod's head all jerked towards the sound.

"WHAT?" Mod yelled.

As the T-Car crashed through the wall to the left, barreling through the shield beyond via its mechanical nature, said shield thankfully just affecting the outside of the car as it roared into the warehouse.

Mod was so surprised he recoiled, letting go of his cane (which thankfully triggered in-build failsafes that temporarily stopped the energy transference, causing it to build up in the spherical computers below) as the car roared across the floor…and Mod quickly realized the folly of a reaction that took him AWAY FROM HIS CANE.

"Here we come to save the day!" Gauntlet trumpeted within the T-Car, though that fact meant the only one who heard him was Cyborg.

"STOP IT!" Mod screamed, lunging toward his cane as he yelled, hoping it would trigger his command circuits properly. How could he have forgotten such a crucial detail? He'd known Cyborg had returned, and that Rob had survived the attack from the ZP units' fake parents: why did he seemingly assume that they wouldn't be able to locate him before it mattered, or that even if they did it would be a moot point? Maybe he'd assumed the shield would keep them out…unless they went through the ceiling, or through the wall via a vehicle like they had, or-ARGH, he had to think of ten racillion things, why did such obvious factors seem so incredibly vague in hindsight?

Another factor was the fact that while Mod's devices were regulating the amount of energy that could be detected by his generator, they couldn't block it entirely, so when Cyborg and Gauntlet had arrived in the area indicated on Robin's computer, all Cyborg had had to do was run a quick scan and the warehouse, like it had to Robin beforehand, stood out like a sore thumb. And unlike Robin, Gauntlet and Cyborg knew the whole story, and didn't bother with a sneaky entrance, preferring to charge in like it was going out of style.

The fact that Cyborg had his stereo blaring '_Flight of the Valkyries_' was just icing, really.

As the car barreled down at the generator: the warehouse's size gave it several seconds before the car impacted but at least 2/3 of those had used up…

"STOP THAT CAR!" Mod screamed.

And Cyborg's radar screen lit up as three dots that had not been on it a split-second ago were now virtually next to his car. There was no time to dodge or activate any defenses.

"Shit! HANG ON!" Cyborg yelled.

As Blaze flew down and hurled a massive fireball at the T-Car, impacting it on the front right side and blowing the tire and a fair chunk of the framework to hell, as the sudden abrupt loss of the wheel and the intense damage to the suspension caused the car to buck and start flying up back end first…before Blast flew in and punched the front, caving it in completely and causing the T-Car, instead of going into an ultra-destructive frontal tumble, to go in an ultra-destructive BACKWARD tumble, the car crashing and spinning backwards across the warehouse floor as pieces of it flew everywhere, before the car finally stopped aerial spinning as it impacted on its roof, spinning on the ground a few more times before it finally came to a stop, upside down with its back end resting on the ground, only a dozen or so feet from the entrance hole it had made when it had crashed in. The deep, victorious opera bellowing from the car abruptly cut off.

Mod sighed deeply in relief. That had been a close one.

And Robin looked at the trashed T-Car…and for a moment, he considered apologizing to Gauntlet for how he'd treated him, even though the only one who would hear it would him.

And then his vision blurred and faded, and Robin lost sense of everything but the void.

Fortunately, Mod was too occupied to try and take a look at his unmasked face: he had a new problem.

"Deal with them!" He ordered, and turned back to his cane. Well, maybe not that much of a problem, as he sighed in bliss as he re-started the chronological transference process and the energy began flowing back into him…which started the children screaming en masse again…

And while Cyborg was still in the dark on a lot of things, the sounds of children in distress made it all irrelevant, as he blinked his eyes open and looked over at Gauntlet. Fortunately, on top of the fact that Cyborg was mostly armored metal and Gauntlet had a mystical artifact that specialized in protection, the T-Car had the finest composite armors for its body and framework, not to mention an even further reinforced cage for the passenger section and a special custom-fitting kinetic-dampening seatbelt/safety harness design. Forget Stuntman Mike's Chevy Nova (or Dodge Charger), Cyborg's T-Car was REALLY death proof. Though that hadn't made the peas in a can rattling experience they'd gone through pleasant, it at least kept them alive and unharmed whereas a normal car would have probably left them in pieces across the road (or floor, as it were).

If Gauntlet was dazed, he had shaken it off, as he looked sheepishly at Cyborg.

"Sorry I got your car wrecked. Again."

"Oh why regret it? It ALWAYS happens!" Cyborg cursed, as he undid his seatbelt, fell down onto the car roof, and started pulling himself out.

"Remember Cyborg, it doesn't matter how young and sweet and all that garbage these brats look! They're unbelievably powerful! DON'T HOLD BACK!" Gauntlet yelled as he also freed himself and pulled himself out through the car's shattered window (and winced at how badly his side of the car was damaged: if that fireball had gone a few inches another way he could have very well lost a foot or something similar), dropping down to the ground as yellow energy sprang out from his gauntlet, ready to use.

As Cyborg reached back into the car window and yanked a box out.

"Knew I reverse-engineered this thing for a reason…" Cyborg said as he opened the box…and took out his version of the HIVE's 'class project', the Ion Amplifier. Ions were atoms that were either missing an electron or in possession of an extra electron, and when they passed near other atoms, they either stole an electron from them (if they were missing one) or shared their excess one, a process that gave off energy. When a device took that process and magnified it, the result was a great deal of excess energy that could, if the designers knew what they were doing, be pumped into another source to augment its power.

Like Cyborg's sonic cannon, as he snapped the device over his arm. Blood might have stolen his technology, but two could play at that game, as he stepped around the car…

And found himself face to face (so to speak, they were still some feet away) with the Zap Pack…and despite himself, despite all of Rob's doomsaying, he found himself struck by how young they looked…and how sad.

"NOW!" Mod yelled from his perch, and with that the Zap Pack broke apart and flew at them, and Cyborg immediately snapped back into his battle mindset.

"So you're the Zap Pack huh? Well SAY HELLO TO _MY_ LITTLE FRIEND!" Cyborg declared, as he raised his ion-amplified sonic cannon, feeling the magnified power of the weapon feed back through his body.

Bolt, from his position above Cyborg, fired a ball of electricity.

And Cyborg fired in turn, the more intense forces of his weapon blasting the gathered electrical ball apart and slamming into Bolt, sending him flying upward at an angle until he crashed violently through the ceiling. Rainwater, from the still raging storm, began dripping in from the hole.

Gauntlet didn't hesitate in the slightest, not even from the Zap Pack's expressions, as he charged at the remaining two.

Blast and Blaze fired twin shots from their hands.

Gauntlet didn't deviate from his path, as the shots exploded in front of him, Gauntlet vanishing in the flames…

And leaping through them as his yellow shield flowed away from in front of him, corresponding to Gauntlet's throwing back his armored arm as he closed in on the pair…

And struck, swinging out his limb and hammering Blaze as hard as he could, letting his rage, the fact he hadn't become friends with them, and the fact they were robots sweep away any hesitation he might have usually had when it came to his strikes, and it showed, as Blaze herself went flying backwards, shooting off to the left from the force of the blow, the attack knocking her nearly twenty or so feet before she recovered…

As Cyborg stepped in front of her, his cannon charging once more, and as Blaze's eyes widened he fired, sending her flying across the warehouse until she crashed into the wall at the far end of the building.

As Blast flew at Gauntlet, but Gauntlet dodged away and under his blow (unlike Robin, Gauntlet was too angry to notice the choreographed nature of it)…

As Cyborg's shoulders flipped up and his chest opened, and the teen machine fired every single missile he had into Blaze's form as she tried to get up. She vanished in the explosion…

As Gauntlet's energy flowed up, seizing Blast even a strand fired out of Rob's elbow and pushed him back up from his backwards dodge, adding to Gauntlet's momentum as he yanked and swung his arm down, the energy flowing from it holding Blast firm as Gauntlet slammed him into the ground as hard as he could.

And then Gauntlet was on him, raining down wild blows, energy wrapping around his normal arm as he let every bit of anger, frustration, and despondency he'd felt ever since his team had made their initial refusal to believe him come pouring out and unleash itself on Blast, Gauntlet hammering the child into the floor with a frenzy unlike anything the Titans had seen before (or would have seen had four of them not been unconscious or almost so and Cyborg currently being occupied with shooting Blaze).

No jokes, no taunts, no quips, no asides, nothing came from Gauntlet: he just punched and punched until his arms and lungs were burning, and then he finally stopped, his limbs hanging limp as he stepped back from Blast's body and took deep, ragged breaths, looking down at his handiwork.

"Great…so I'm angry…violent…and without mercy…does that make me deep now?" Gauntlet said sardonically, and then looked up at Mod.

Who, with numb hands, once again let go of his cane, having forgotten the pleasurable part of the transfer process as he saw his invincible creations prove to be not so invincible, as the process once again stopped itself and the energy began to gather at the spherical computers again, the 'quark snowflake' continuing to shift and shine above them, as he looked down at Gauntlet and Cyborg.

Gauntlet, to his own great satisfaction, gave him the finger.

"Looks like you should have played with someone your own age. Then again, the Justice Society would have figured out your retarded plan pretty much immediately." Gauntlet taunted.

Cyborg turned off the ion amplifier as he aimed his cannon at Mod.

"Welcome back to Loserville Mod. We saved your apartment."

And Cyborg fired.

And perhaps he should have left the ion amplifier on, as it struck the generator shield and was neutralized, much to the pair's surprise, though they still managed to get Mod to jump despite himself.

"Should worry more about your own house, you rotten brats. You think you've won?" Mod asked.

Gauntlet arched an eyebrow…and then realized Bolt was nowhere to be seen.

"ACK! CYBORG! DEATH FROM ABOVE!" Gauntlet yelled.

"WHERE?" Cyborg replied, as he swung his cannon back up, switching the ion amplifier back on in the process, as he scanned the ceiling, looking for a target.

"…why is…" Gauntlet began…

As his eyes, scanning the room, slid onto the hole in the wall that he and Cyborg had made when they'd crashed the T-Car in, the hole that Cyborg had his back to as he scanned the air for the target Rob had assumed would be there.

A poor assumption.

"CYBORG! BEHIND YOU!" Gauntlet yelled.

A warning that proved more apt then even Gauntlet had intended, as Bolt was suddenly next to Cyborg, having indeed flown around and in through the ground floor, hiding behind the car for a moment until Cyborg's back was turned.

Cyborg's lone eye widened as he tried to turn…

"Sorry sir." Bolt said.

And Bolt placed his hand on Cyborg's shoulder, and Cyborg was suddenly subjected to an electrical blast so severe it overloaded even his advanced negating systems, as he screamed in the grip of the power and then collapsed, smoking and off-line.

Bolt looked at his hand, and then lowered his head.

"Oh damn…" Gauntlet said, as he called his energy to him to begin forming a shield…

And then his eyes spied motion, and he turned…and a look of horror filled his face as Blast slowly got up, not a scratch on him from Gauntlet's furious assault, an attack in which Gauntlet had given everything he could have given.

"Do you feel better Gauntlet?" Blast asked: the complete lack of sarcasm just made the fact more horrifying.

As Blaze flew in, also unaffected. Gauntlet really wasn't surprised.

"You lot always did flap your gums too much." Mod said from his platform. "Take care of him."

Gauntlet's head jerked around, searching for help, any help, but none of his teammates came to his aid: they, like Cyborg, lay on the ground (or in Terra's case against the wall), broken and motionless. Gauntlet couldn't even tell if they were dead or alive.

And for a moment, Rob understood what Kurai must have felt all those weeks before. Unaccustomed helplessness. The disturbing combination of a ten year old's body and godlike strength.

Worse, Rob knew he wasn't going to just get blasted off again. They had him and they were going to KILL him. And he couldn't even spit in the eye of the man who did this to him, thanks to a damn forcefield.

"I'm sorry Gauntlet." Blaze said.

"I wish we could have been friends." Blast said, and then thrust out his hands.

"Oh snozzcumber." Gauntlet moaned.

The explosion blew him across the warehouse floor, his shield taking most of the attack but not all of it, as Gauntlet hissed between his teeth and stopped himself, landing on his feet. This situation just had to pour the salt on his wounds. Rob would almost have preferred it if they had been good automatons or outright evil; this whiny 'I don't wanna do this but I have to' attitude made his defeat all the more pathetic.

Then again, maybe that was exactly what the puppet master had planned, as Gauntlet turned baleful eyes up to Mod, who had seemingly decided to put his youth-theft on hold for a bit to watch the destruction of the only person who'd seen through his convoluted nonsense.

"This is low, even for YOU, Mad Mod. Ruining Canada Day was one thing, but this?" Gauntlet snapped.

"Low, you say?" Mod replied in a smug 'what did you expect' satisfaction which just infuriated Gauntlet all the more.

"Not only yes, but FUCK yes! What'samatter old man, losing your hearing!?" Gauntlet yelled back in a weak taunt.

It worked despite that, as Mod's face colored in rage.

"Oh you think you've got it all bloody figured out, don't you? You're eighteen and are the bloody reincarnation of King Solomon? You can't possibly know where I'm coming from!" Mod ranted in a rage. "You've never been taunted just for looking the way you are, mocked in every movie and TV show! Being old used to be a sign of wisdom and now it's a punch line! The old are sent off to homes because their actual FAMILIES can't be bothered to deal with them! Only the young are valuable! Give them their Ipods and trust funds and let them run wild! In a way, you won! I bloody agree! Old people are a waste of space and a bother to have around! So really, I'm doing the only thing that makes sense! If the old are worthless, then I'll establish my worth by flipping the Grim Reaper the bird and becoming young again! And if you think these kids are going to miss the year or so I'm stealing from them? Here's a hint…it's the last year of their lives, when THEY'LL be old! So shut your rotten mouth! I'm just doing the Logan's Run thing and being much more humane about it then you bastards with your homes and your thieving nurses and your mockery of the PEOPLE WHO BLOODY GAVE YOU LIFE! IF THAT YEAR IS GOING TO SPENT IN A HOLE SOMEWHERE PLAYING BINGO, THE LITTLE ROTTERS SHOULD _**THANK ME!"**_

"…I'm sure on some planet, what you said is considered rational. Your weak point is that this is Earth." Gauntlet replied in a deadpan tone.

Mod clenched his hands into white-knuckle fists, and then, as the Zap Pack flew down before Gauntlet, he thrust out an arm and pointed it at Gauntlet.

"KILL HIM!"

"Oh poopy." Gauntlet said, and threw up another shield.

Bolt and Blast's combined blow sent painful vibrations shooting through Gauntlet's body as they struck the shield and sent Gauntlet shooting backwards, his boots sliding across the ground like it was ice.

"All right…if I smashed your parents, then I can certainly…oops." Gauntlet said, as he blinked. "You didn't hear that bit about me smashing your parents did you-DAMN IT ROB STOP SAYING YOU SMASHED THEIR-ARGH!"

"We know." Bolt said quietly. Gauntlet blinked again.

"We understand." Blaze said. "In our way, we cared for them. But we knew their roles, and how it might end."

"Maybe we'll miss them. I really don't know. All I can do is what the master wishes." Blast said.

"I'm going to guess that you didn't make them Asimov Law compatible." Gauntlet said to Mod.

"HE WAS A HACK!" Mod yelled.

"Says the guy too dorky to be a good Austin Powers lookalike."

"Will one of you SHUT HIM UP!" Mod yelled, his anger clouding his sensibilities that would have made him give the order into his cane otherwise.

"No, they won't. And do you know why? Because inevitably sentient robots turn upon their creators! I mean, you almost wonder why anybody even tries making sentient or self-aware robots in the first place, theoretically, you could get away with a semi-sentient system without free will in most situations…but since you were so insistent on it…Bold! Blaze! Third Guy! You are not guns! You are who you choose to be!" Gauntlet declared, and then he leapt at Mad Mod, slamming out his energy in a combination shield and battering ram…

As Blast fired a blue bolt of power so fierce it SHATTERED the shield, sending Gauntlet tumbling back and crashing into the ground.

"Ugh…okay…so you are guns…" Gauntlet groaned as he pulled himself up. "But guns have safeties…and child locks…used them…please."

The Zap Pack flew at him, and Gauntlet threw up another shield.

But all it did was ensure the blows didn't kill him, as Blaze broke through it with a punch that slammed into Gauntlet's ribcage, even as Blast flew in from another direction and punched through the shield himself, slamming a blow against Gauntlet's cheek that sent him staggering…before Bolt blasted him with electricity, the paralyzing energy tearing through his nervous system and causing Rob to collapse to his knees.

"Ackkkkkkkk…you…suck…Mod." Gauntlet coughed.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Mad Mod raged. "WHY ISN'T HE DEAD!?"

"But master…" Blast said.

"SHOOT HIM!"

The Zap Pack thrust out their hands, and Gauntlet erected as best a shield he could before the three attacks blew him backwards head over heels…

Into an orange arm.

"My…supposed friends…he speaks the truth. If you are so well made…then you are what you chose to be. How can you be tools…if you were made to be so much like us…" Starfire rasped, as she set Gauntlet down. He coughed and winced in pain.

"When they make the TV Movie, getting my ass kicked was an elaborate plan to help you recover, Star."

"It is good to see you too, friend Robert…though I believe anything I have left will not help." Starfire replied.

"ARGH! Why can't you KILL THEM when I tell you to KILL THEM!" Mod yelled.

"Why don't you come down here and do it yourself? If you're so clever and British and whatnot! Eh wot…!" Gauntlet babbled. Mad Mod fumed.

"I'll say it again: forget all that rubbish they're spewing! Every bit of hesitancy you have is because of the level of the part I made you to play! It does not exist! Everything you feel comes from me, and you only exist because of me! You answer to me! That is the end of it no matter WHAT cliché habit of fiction they throw in your faces! NOW DESTROY THEM!" Mod ordered.

"So, now what? Keep trying to talk the androids out of it?" Gauntlet asked.

"That…doesn't seem to be working." Came Robin's voice, as he limped over to Gauntlet and Starfire's side, his mask stuck back on.

"Well, maybe we're getting through to them. They're certainly looking really sad. I bet that we're about to talk them out of it! This battle has a 'final climax' feel about it!" Gauntlet expostulated.

"Gauntlet, this isn't a comic book." Robin said.

"Thinking it was let me see through them. I think it's worked pretty well so far." Gauntlet said. "Zap Pack! Who are you going to listen to? The people you love, or the man who made you to destroy what you love?"

Silence.

"…I don't have a heart, Gauntlet." Blast said sadly. "But if I did, I'd wish on it that it was that simple."

And Blast fired, blowing the trio backwards in a painful tumble.

"That's better." Mod said with a fiendish grin. "Now finish it."

The Zap Pack listened, flying forward slowly, as the trio got back up (the other three Titans still down and out) and looked at them with weary eyes.

"Wait…my knowledge of plot points has helped me figure this out…since we're beaten…any second now…help will be arriving…to save the day…any second now…any second…" Gauntlet said.

But no heroes emerged, from above or below.

"I guess…Alan Moore…wrote this one…never trust a…post modern writer…" Gauntlet wheezed. "But never fear, I am certain I can make a big dramatic speech and…and…why the hell didn't I call in the Justice League for help on this one?"

"Because they sent you an email saying you suck?" Robin pointed out.

"Oh yeah, that…man, you'd think they wouldn't get so sore over some forgotten Christmas cards…and putting the footage of that Christmas Party on Youtube…I stand by those three million views, if Black Canary didn't want her nip slip on camera, she shouldn't have worn that little dress…though yes, the tragedy involving Aquaman's pet clown fish was my fault, but I still plead temporary insanity…" Gauntlet trailed off as the Zap Pack closed in and he found he had no more smart-aleck left. "Now what do we do? Some Spartan Courage?"

"No." Robin said, as he reached behind himself and pulled out his staff again. "Titan Courage."

"…have I heard that one before?" Starfire asked. "I have a strange feeling like the vu of déjà."

"Yes…the last time we faced a force so far beyond us. And for every time we will do so again." Robin said.

"…is this another thing where you guys start talking about the Final Night and then stop suddenly and there's an awkward silence?" Rob asked.

Robin and Starfire looked at him, and despite himself, Gauntlet grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Just saying."

"There will be time for awkward silence later." Robin said, as he looked at the Zap Pack before them. "I hope."

"No, there won't." Mod said from his platform. "KILL THEM."

For one last brief moment, the Zap Pack hesitated.

And then they held out their hands, gathering their respective powers.

"…no sense…repeating it. You know what we said. Edgar, Thomas, Tawny. You decide." Robin said. "Choose."

The Zap Pack looked stricken, even as they continued to charge their power.

Mod grinned ferociously.

The Titans looked at what they'd thought was the future, and now seemed nothing more than the intent of taking theirs…

There was a sound of thunder.

Which faded into the guttural roar of another vehicle, and as the Zap Pack swung around again and Mod jerked his head towards the noise, in utter disbelief…

As the satanic red and black motorcycle roared through the same hole Cyborg and Gauntlet had made, somehow going even faster then the T-Car, as Mod's eyes went as wide as saucers.

As the motorcycle hit the overturned T-Car and used it as a ramp, driving up it and hurling its body through the air, even as the riding figure jumped free.

The airborne vehicle filled Mod's vision.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!"

And then it crashed violently into the side and top of the generator, disintegrating as it ripped through the machine, and Mod found himself falling as a flaming wheel flew at him, nearly taking his head off. Alarms erupted. Sparks flew. Children screamed, and so did the Zap Pack, as they briefly thrashed and then fell to the ground, as if their power had been disrupted.

And the figure landed, all stylish black punk and nihilistic cool…if you ignored the massive apparatus he was wearing that kept his jaw wired shut.

As Mod raised himself up, looking in sheer disbelief at the sight.

"…Renard?"

Despite his injury, Johnny Rancid could still made a chest thump with his fist look damn intimidating, not to mention the intense glare that shone from his eyes.

"…that's help for the WRONG SIDE, you hack! Don't you know how this is supposed to work!?" Rob yelled.

"Rob, who are you talking to?" Robin asked.

"God, mostly."

"RENARD! WHAT…HOW…WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?!" Mod screamed, as his machine sparked and groaned beneath him.

Rancid…pulled out a chalkboard. And began writing on it. Slowly. Mod, while still old, had decent eyesight with his glasses, and could still manage to read it.

"…'Yuu…lift…mai…to…dai…you…basterd.'? ARGH! YOU BLOODY IDIOT! YOU FORCED MY HAND! THAT'S JUST HOW THE BUSINESS GOES! IT WAS NOTHING PERSONAL!" Mod yelled down at him.

Rancid erased his previous message and wrote down something new before showing it to Mod.

PLUCK YEW.

"I am beginning to remember just why I dropped our end of the bargain you accursed chav-!"

And then louder, more strident alarms began sounding, as Mod felt his heart sink into a pit of ice. No. He'd been so surprised by this sudden event and the anger it had bloomed in him that he'd actually briefly forgotten about the fact Johnny had just rammed his motorcycle INTO HIS IMMENSELY DELICATE AND DANGEROUS GENERATOR.

"Oh no. OH NO!" Mod screamed, as he ran over to the main center computer, looking in horror at the readouts that were showing up on it. Since he'd stopped draining the children's youth, the power of the quark gluon plasma had been building up, and combined with the malfunctions that Johnny's stunt had pulled…

"NO! NOT NOW! NOT WHEN I'M SO CLOSE!" Mod screamed as he furiously tried to reverse the horrendous and getting worse situation…and the 'quark snowflake' began to twist and distort below him…

And Terra was finally fully waking up, mainly because the energy output of the generator had changed: while she'd been vaguely away of the power before, now it was lashing out in waves that acted like slaps upside her head, jarring her back to her senses…which allowed her to be surprised by a slight motion as she fell back several inches, her back thudding against the wall as she blinked.

"What is happening? It was successfully damaged! Why is the machine not shutting down?" Starfire asked, feeling the pulses in her own head as well.

"It's NEVER that easy!" Gauntlet yelled back. "I just hope we don't need a dropship!"

"GUYS!" Terra yelled in a somewhat strained tone, and the three turned to look at her as she leaned against the wall, recoiling from the pain the yell caused to her broken nose. "The shields are down! They're DOWN!" Terra yelled once more, trying to deal with it.

"The shields? We can rescue the children!" Starfire said.

"Hang on a second! Edgar!" Robin said, as the Zap Pack were getting up, having seemingly recovered from their little jolt. "What's going on?"

"…the generator…it's overloading…oh no…" Blast said, his voice filled with horror.

"Oh NO! NO!!!!!!!" Mod screamed, as his furious efforts to stop or at least delay the process all came to naught. The generator was overloading and the process was irreversible. And due to Mod's stored power, not only was it going down it was going down in the worst way.

Death was staring him in the face again, and this time it would not be denied.

"YOU STUPID BASTARD! YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! YOU RUINED _**EVERYTHING!"**_ Mod screamed at Rancid.

Rancid rapidly scribbled down one last thing.

HAA HAA HAA.

And then, while holding the chalkboard up with one hand, Rancid slammed the other into the crook of his arm.

As the ripped metal where Rancid had crashed his motorcycle suddenly exploded outward in a blast of fire and metal, and Rancid was caught in the blast and sent flying back, until he came to a dead stop by crashing painfully against the wrecked T-Car, sliding down and thudding to the ground, knocked cold.

It was slim comfort to Mod, considering that in moments…

…no. Things may have gone catastrophically tits-up but Mod wasn't dead yet. He might not have finished becoming young, but he'd gotten a fair dose of chronological transfer energy: his anger had kept him from noticing he felt better then he had in the past 10-15 years. And his generator was overloading, but Mod _had_ taken through notes of EVERY part of the building process and backed them up double: if he got away he could always retrieve them later and start again. And while the ZP units were fueled by the generator, they had an emergency battery that would keep them activate and their powers working if only at the bare minimum levels if the generator exploded.

The problem was how big the explosion would be…

Then Mod had an idea. He was thinking too narrowly. If he expanded his thought process…there was a chance!

And despite all the nonsense spewed by the Titans, he still commanded the Zap Pack. And it was time to cut his losses and run.

Mod stalked over to his cane and yanked it free, doing one quick check to make sure the master command setting was still active (it was), and then he used it.

"ZP UNITS! COME HERE!"

The Titans didn't hear Mod's command: the noise was too great. Which left them somewhat surprised when the Zap Pack suddenly turned and flew off.

"…did we just win?" Gauntlet asked.

"Who cares? The kids! We have to get the kids!" Robin ordered, as he took off across the floor, Starfire and Gauntlet with him.

"Ohhhhhhhhh…whot hoppened…" Beast Boy groaned as he himself regained consciousness, Terra helping him up.

"Things are going to shit and we may yet all die." Terra replied.

"Oh, so it's Wednesday then." Beast Boy replied, as he shook off the final cobwebs and saw his teammates running for the machine: he quickly followed, Terra at his heels.

And on top of his platform, Mod glared at his greatest creations, which had disappointed him in the end. The fact that said disappointment ultimately originated in HIS choices was lost on him: he'd built them to play a role and they'd refused to leave the stage when the curtain went down. In the future, he'd take that into account.

The Zap Pack just looked back at their creator.

"All right, listen very carefully you little buggers. The generator's out of control and it's going to explode. What you're going to do is take me, CAREFULLY BUT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, out of this building and into the sky at a steep angle! Focus more on going up then away, this explosion will probably have more horizontal than vertical range! And don't forget to keep me warm ZP-3, it's damn cold up high! And don't take me so high that I can't breathe!" Mod ordered the Zap Pack. "Now let's go."

"…but what about the children?" Blaze asked.

"SCREW THE CHILDREN!"

"Master, they've done nothing! At least let them go so they can try and escape!" Bolt argued.

"Yeah! Let them go!" Blast said. "We'll take you away, but just let them go!"

"You don't get it, do you? You can't save those little rotters. There's no way they, or those bastard Titans, will get anywhere near the distance needed to escape. The generator's in complete meltdown. With the forces I was harnessing, the explosion might blow this whole state off the map, and possibly a chunk of several others and two oceans as well! Those children are dead! The Titans are dead! This whole city and countless miles beyond are DEAD! But I am NOT DEAD, because you are going to take me away, NOW!" Mod ordered.

The Zap Pack were silent, looking at Mod.

"Don't you look at me like that! Every feeling you have comes from me! Every thought, every urge, every viewpoint, all me! You are MINE! My creations, my weapons, my WILL! And it's MY life I care about, not THEIRS!" Mod snarled. "Your time as heroes was to serve my purpose, and my purpose has changed. Now take me away as I said. THAT'S AN ORDER." Mod said directly into his cane.

The Zap Pack held their gaze.

"……………….no." Blast said. Mod goggled.

"WHAT?"

"I said, NO." Blast said.

"YOU CAN'T SAY NO! I…YOU WILL…!" Mod yelled into his cane.

Blast grabbed it away from him. Mod goggled even deeper.

"No…what…this is impossible, this isn't some story, what are you DOING?"

"Choosing." Blast said, and broke the cane.

Mod stared in utter shock and horror, and then sank to his knees. How…

"You know why." Blast said.

"Now we're going to do what you made us to do." Bolt said.

"Goodbye master. May the rest of your years treat you kinder then those you've struggled through." Blaze said.

And with that they were gone.

* * *

Robin was completely unaware of what had unfolded, as he was too busy sawing through the binds of one of the trapped children, as Starfire, Gauntlet, and Beast Boy each used their respective talents to cut, gnaw, or burn through other bonds.

"Come on! Double time!" Robin ordered: the pulsing waves were only increasing in intensity, and were about a step away from being debilitating, as he finished cutting through the leg bonds of another trapped child.

Terra, robbed of her rocks (though in theory she could probably rip up the ground and get some now, it wasn't like she could make the problem any worse, though that did not occur to her…) had chosen another tactic, as she staggered over to Cyborg to see if he was okay.

He sat up a few seconds before she reached him.

"Cyborg!"

"Damn, that reboot took longer then expected. That little brat fried my systems good…"Cyborg said as he flexed his fingers…as said systems, now that Cyborg was back in action, immediately picked up on the massive energy fluctuations. "HOLY SHIT! What the hell did you morons get up to when I was out?!?"

"The damn thing's overloading, we need to…MORONS?" Terra said incredulously.

"Sorry, old habit from younger, dumber days, popped out, forgive me later! Gotta save the kids!" Cyborg said as he jumped up and ran.

"Now that I agree with." Terra replied, as she followed.

* * *

"Robin, is that supposed to be doing that?" Starfire said, pointing upward.

Robin looked up…

As the spherical setup for the enhanced CETD suddenly broke loose, falling down as the kids screamed…and Starfire flew up, grabbing the complicated mechanical setup and reducing it to so much junk as she hurled it away from the group, the device crashing down on the floor a few dozen feet away and letting Robin see what Starfire had pointed out even more clearly.

Robin had noticed the 'quark snowflake' hadn't seemed exactly stable when he'd approached the machine, but he'd put that concern on the back burner as he rushed to get the kidnapped children free. It was now apparent he really should have paid more attention to it: it was now nearly twice as large as it had been before and was continuing to distort and thrash, as if it was pushing against the very limits of its boundaries…

And broke through, as a white bolt of energy tore from the energy concentration and zapped down, going over Robin's head at an angle as he recoiled and then whirled around, as the bolt hit the generator and passed through the metal like it wasn't there, vaporizing its way straight through. Robin had no idea if it had stopped at some point or if it was still going down through the earth at intense speeds, unstopping until it broke out the other end somewhere in China or whatever precisely lay at the opposite end of this part of the globe. He was more alarmed that whatever energy it was composed of, it was so potent and destructive it made hardened metal act like ice exposed to molten rock…

So what would it do if…

As Robin looked up, as the energy mass of the 'quark snowflake' deformed and strained…and another bolt of white power tore from it. This one went straight down.

Robin never even had a chance to scream a warning.

As Blast flew down and before the bolt of power, holding out his hands and stopping it dead, the energy slamming into him, coursing around his being in a somewhat identical way to when Mod had been performing his chronological transfer.

Robin blinked as he lowered his arm.

"Edgar?" He said, somewhat confused despite his earlier efforts.

"Robin, get the children out! This is the energy that powers us, we can contain it! NOW GO!" Blast yelled as he flew to the side, the stray energy eruption from the quark snowflake following his body as he flew over to the other one that had gone through the generator and intercepted it, the energy crackling on his body only increasing as he pushed it back.

"…well I'll be damned." Gauntlet said, looking up at the sight.

"You can be damned later Gauntlet, come ON!" Starfire yelled, as she burned off another set of restraints, and Gauntlet snapped back to the job at hat and cut another kid free.

Cyborg and Terra arrived at the 'entrance' to the section where the kids had been held, as Cyborg sized the situation up.

"Terra, get outside, go get a rock platform big enough to carry us all away!" Cyborg said.

"Huh? Oh. Right!" The blonde replied, taking off for the hole in the wall Cyborg's car had made. With her gone, Cyborg took a look at the fact that despite two-thirds or so of the kids being free, none of them had run off, frozen with fear and clinging to the Titans, which was actually getting in the way of them doing their work.

"B! I'm gonna need your help! Okay kids, now listen…!" Cyborg began.

As another bolt of energy ripped itself free of the 'snowflake' and tore across the warehouse…and into Bolt's hands, as he seized it like Blast and forced it back, even as Blast reached the 'snowflake' itself and floated next to it, arms out, keeping the renegade power from escaping.

Cyborg, momentarily startled by this, quickly started speaking again.

"We're getting you out, so just follow me and Beast Boy! Don't panic, you'll be all right! Come on!" Cyborg said, waving his hand as he started to herd the children out with Beast Boy and, when he ran out of kids on his 'section', Gauntlet.

As Bolt reached the 'snowflake' and took up a position near Blast, and before any more errant eruptions of deadly energy could occur, Blaze flew down and formed a triangle with them, as the 'snowflake' finally ceased expanding as energy fired out and into the Zap Pack, coursing between their bodies as they contained the overloading power, though the 'snowflake' continued to twist and malform.

"That's right, follow Cyborg and Beast Boy! They'll get you out!" Robin ordered as he cut another kid free. That left one nearby, and he swiftly ran over and began sawing at his bonds, as Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Gauntlet led the kids out in a train to Terra, who had ripped out a big section of the concrete outside the warehouse and had it floating a few inches above the ground so the kids would know where to go. "Come on, go go!" Robin said, cutting the last child free. He turned around…

None left: the last had been freed by Starfire a few moments ago and she was showing her out. Robin did a quick double-check just to be sure…and then the warehouse shook as explosions ripped through the generator, nearly knocking Robin off his feet. He regained his senses and looked up, as the Zap Pack continued to rein in the uncontrollable energy Mod's arrogance had unleashed on the world.

As for Mod himself, he was sitting helplessly on the platform, still unable to believe it had all gone wrong. He'd snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and what was worse, it all seemed so…inevitable. Because Mod had know the only way to fool the Titans would be to program the AI's the way he had…and the way he had…

And more explosions ripped through the machine, and Mod saw a surge of fire burning across the top towards him, and he screamed…

As Starfire flew down and snatched him up, pulling him away from a burning death, as she flew towards the warehouse wall hole and outside, where the thunderstorm had finally abated.

Mod looked up at her.

"We are not like you." Starfire said, not even bothering to look at the old man.

As Cyborg, with Gauntlet and Beast Boy escorting the last of the kidnap victims out, looked around the T-Car, groaned at the reality of it, and picked up Johnny Rancid, slinging him over his shoulder and carrying him off. His 'communicator chalkboard' clattered to the ground, and Cyborg noted with some confusion it now said 'Owe'…then he dismissed as irrelevant and ran, Rancid over his shoulder as he carried him out.

Robin watched this, as he did one last scan around the wrecked warehouse with his eyes and communicator, finding no hidden children that had run off and were cowering in fear. He snapped the communicator back into his belt and turned around.

"All right guys, everyone's clear! Let's get out of here!" Robin yelled at the Zap Pack.

"…we can't." Blast said. Robin blinked.

"The energy overload will cause unbelievable destruction if left unchecked…we're the only things that can check it Robin. We're going to feed it back into the generator, made it burn out and destroy itself…but to do that…" Bolt said.

"Go." Blaze said. "Get the children clear."

Robin, despite himself, continued standing there.

"You knew that was the case even before you spoke Robin. It's all right." Blast said, as he looked at Robin. "We may not be human, but we were programmed with all knowledge and current understandings of the human mind, to help us with our 'goal'…I know how it easy it is to become angry, to hate, to turn your back…thank you for living up to what we truly loved and admired Robin. You are Titans, in all aspects." Blast said. "We'll do our part. Do yours."

"…………………………goodbye guys." Robin said.

"Goodbye Robin. I'm glad we knew you." Blast replied.

And Robin turned and ran, his adrenaline briefly blotting out his injuries as he sprinted for the makeshift exit, even as more explosions erupted from the generator. The Zap Pack didn't have much time left.

"…Tom…Tawn…it was an honor." Edgar Bonaparte said.

"…likewise." Replied Thomas Pickard.

"…likewise." Echoed Donna Rodkey. "…will it hurt?"

"If it does, we'll face it together." Blast said.

The snowflake thrashed and roiled, straining to be free and turn countless miles to ash…

As Robin jumped on Terra's rock and she pulled it from the ground, carrying her many passengers away from the warehouse as brilliant white light began to stream from within it.

"…let's go, Zap Pack." Blast said. "GO!"

"GO!"

"GO!"

And then there was nothing but the brilliance.

* * *

As the warehouse exploded, blasted to near-dust from the terrible eruption of power from within, an explosion caused by a far-more-devastating meltdown being fed back into itself, snuffing itself out with its own energies and just leaving minor reactions in its wake. Said minor reactions not only blew the warehouse to pieces but also wrecked all the surrounding buildings and nearly blew apart the rock Terra was carrying her passengers on, as the children screamed one last time.

But Terra held on, and the screams faded, as the Titans recovered or picked themselves up from where they'd fallen, and looked at the burning remains of what was meant to be their tomb.

They'd escaped, once more.

The future was, for the moment, once again theirs.

* * *

The warehouse was mostly metal, rock, and various composites: it didn't have much fuel to burn as the Titans looked through its wreckage. Off in the distance a myriad of police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and whatnot flashed their lights and did their work, looking after the retrieved children so the Titans could focus on their task at hand: digging through the remains of the warehouse and generator and trying to find a spark of hope amongst the devastation.

Cyborg found Bolt first, but it was clear he was gone: the top of his head was shattered and the immensely complicated components of what had served as his brain were scattered in ruins around his burned, twisted body. Despite this, his face was still so much like that of a child, and looked serene, as if asleep.

Cyborg lowered and shook his head as the Titans looked at him and the body, needing no words. Having none. The Titans took it numbly, and continued digging.

As Starfire and Terra uncovered Blaze's body…what was left of it: her right arm and left leg were gone, her chest was torn open, parts scattered on the ground, and most of her human face was gone, revealing the broken parts beneath it. Terra recoiled at the sight, as Beast Boy just winced and Starfire looked on, sadly.

As Blaze's eye suddenly moved, a brief light in it now apparent.

"Don't t-t-t-turn Unit ZP-3 off…" Her broken mouth stuttered out. "Unit ZP-3 is…apprehensive…of the…darrrrrrrrrkkknnnneeesssssss…."

And the light faded away, gone for good. Beast Boy was amazed Starfire didn't cry. Then again, maybe the pain she felt was too great for that.

Blast was close by, a shattered wreck as well, all his body besides his upper chest and right arm gone…but his face was more or less intact…and he was awake, as Robin uncovered him and knelt down.

"…Di-did we d-d-do it? Are the ki-ki-ki-kids safe-afe-afe?" Blast stuttered to Robin, sparks shooting from his body.

"…yes. They are. You saved them. You saved us all."

"…go-go-go-good." Blast said. "…I'm…ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…pyyyyyyy…"

And Blast went limp, the last sparks of his mind ceasing to be.

"……'My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see. If Immortality unveil, a third event to me. So huge, so hopeless to conceive, As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven. And all we need of hell.'" Robin said solemnly, and closed Blast's eyes.

* * *

In all the chaos, its not surprising Mad Mod tried to slip away.

He didn't get far, as yellow energy suddenly seized him and slammed him up against the nearest wall, as Mod found himself looking at a furious Gauntlet.

"Ah…'ello guvenor…" Mod said lamely.

"WHY, did you HAVE to MAKE ME RIGHT?" Gauntlet hissed. "Why, of all the times, did you have to make me RIGHT?"

"What are you blabbering about? You won! My plans are ruined! You're vindicated! Are you youth so stupid you can't even realize THAT?" Mod snapped.

"And in that you show you don't know a damn thing about me." Gauntlet hissed.

"Gauntlet, hold it. He's an old man." Robin said as he approached, his staff held loosely in one arm. The Titans came behind him, carrying the remains of the Zap Pack. Robin's demeanor spoke of a storm just looking for its time to break.

"Please tell me you backed up their AI programs somewhere." Robin said quietly.

"Backed up? What do you think such complicated programming is, word files? It was hard enough to come up with them, I didn't have the time to back them…!"

And the staff abruptly buried itself in the wall next to Mod's head, as his eyes went wide.

"…you really have no idea what you made, did you." Robin said, now face to face with Mod, speaking in a low tone so dangerous Mod almost voided his bowels.

It didn't keep his mouth shut.

"You stupid git. They were machines."

"No……no." Was all Robin said. "You will be taken to the prison hospital outside of our city. Do not come back here. You will regret it with an intensity you could never conceive of if you come back here. You are cast out. Do NOT return."

And Robin yanked the staff free of the wall and turned his back on Mod, leaving with his fellows, even as Gauntlet let him go and a few police officers approached to more properly restrain him. Fortunately, Rancid was still unconscious in an ambulance and was a non-factor for the police at the time.

Gauntlet looked down at the old man.

"I hope your plan was worth it Mod. Because you're going to spent every last minute you stole from those kids locked up and wasting away, and when you finally do kick it, all that will appear in the papers will be a small obituary 'Mad Mod, D-list villain, masterminded failed Independence Day attack, beaten by the Titans'. That will be all. No mention of your genius. No mention of your accomplishments. You will be forgotten Mod. In effect, you already are. This is OUR time." Gauntlet said.

And with that Gauntlet turned and walked away, a smile on his face, leaving Mod staring after him on the ground, as the police officers went to handcuff him.

Gauntlet had only taken several steps before the cheer faded.

"Ugh…no more wearing the Noel hat. My stomach can't handle this much bile."

* * *

_And that was pretty much it._

_The children were returned to their parents after medical testing made sure there were no side or hidden effects of the process Mad Mod put them through. I suppose that's a happy ending, though I suspect most of the kids are going to need intensive therapy for going through such a terrible experience. I've already looked into devoting some funds into a program for that: we may not be able to take back the bad things but we can do what we can to help them deal with them._

_Mad Mod was taken to the prison hospital, where he was examined for that 'brain tumor' he yelled he had, and why I suspect he was attempting to permanently steal youth from the children. But they found no trace or it…or rather, they found the very beginnings of what MIGHT have been it. Despite their redemption, the Zap Pack did allow Mod to steal some time from the kids, youthening him enough to reduce the tumor to near-nothing, and now that they know what's going to happen they're obliged to try and do something about it. If they can get the tumor early, Mod might live another twenty years. For the moment, he's still in jail, but we can't watch him 24/7. In time, he might escape. Will he listen to us? I doubt it. Common sense comes and goes. Hatred burns eternal._

_As for the Zap Pack…we gave them a proper funeral._

_Some might call us fools for doing so. The same would probably say that this shows the exact reason we should give up hope. The happy children who professed to admire us and wanted to use miraculous powers to follow in our footsteps were really just a tool for an insane and bitter old man to break our hearts and then rip them out. We should have seen it coming, and we should listen to this example and harden our hearts and souls. Stop caring, because caring just gets you hurt. The truth of the Zap Pack is the truth of the world. It's a dark, dangerous, cruel, hateful place. It's always been that way, it will always be that way._

…_I don't think so._

_For all our efforts, it was not our words that finally made the Zap Pack turn on their master. It was him, his words, his desires. He programmed them to be heroes, and yet realize they were nothing but his toys. And in his actions he resolved the internal contradictions of such a setup, never understanding that in the nature of the actions and beliefs he programmed into them, he would inevitably make something that would do what they believed in rather then what he told them to believe in._

_Maybe some would see the Zap Pack as only what their creator intended._

_I chose to see them for what they were in the end. What they chose to be._

_Heroes._

**ZAP PACK: FILE CLOSED.**

(Roll credits with the Terminator 2 Main Theme)

* * *

_**The End…?**_

_**Ha ha ha…**_

_**You wish Titans. You wish.**_


	35. Interlude: Model Citizen

_Interlude: Model Citizen_

_or_

_A Failure To Communicate_

Writer's Note: My thanks to _Oz _(Not the land, the prison), 'n3cro' for his stories helping flesh my own out some (if he ever discovers it), and Zia, who actually made this chapter remotely credible.

* * *

"_We are all born mad. Some remain so."_

_-Samuel Beckett_

* * *

_In the beginning, there was God. Or so some people would say. But let us say there was._

_There was God, and nothing else. A few million centuries pass, and God grows lonely. God wants someone to talk to._

_So he makes man, a creature in his own image, another, for the sake of conversation. But to make something to converse with, he had to make it talk. And to make something that with one could hold a proper conversation, he had to give us free will. What can one talk about, when only one decides the topics?_

_And so the beginning was the Word, of God, with God, all God. Or so it seems. For it seems that man got the wrong idea. They would rather not speak with their creator, but rather themselves._

_So we came into existence finding people to talk to, and our own ways to do it._

_While God found himself, still as lonely as ever._

* * *

Once upon a time, a man wrote of a place where mad people lived, lorded over by a cruel queen. 

And later, another man wrote of another place where mad people supposedly resided, yet in reality, it seemed like the madness lay more within those running the place rather then the patients of it. But the place still had its cruel queen, a tyrant turning a healing and protective atmosphere into an oppressive, suffocating fiefdom.

This place is not like that…for the most part.

But in this second place, it was said that the cruel queen had hired three hands to aid her in her despotism, and that she chose these three men solely based on their capacity to hate.

That is not the case here…somewhat.

In the halls of the Edge City Asylum, most who walked them with freedom and clarity brought those aspects to their vision. It was not like the terrible places the first one could be and the second was.

But nothing is perfect.

And every batch of apples has a few rotten ones.

And so we found these two men walking down the dark hallways of this early morning. One was white, one was black, though they both wore the same dark blue uniforms (a recent change, as the previous white ones had proven to bring in cleaning bills that were too high) and had their (brown and dark brown) hair cut in the same short semi-buzzcuts to ensure no one could pull it. They seemed relatively average in appearance, neither drop dead handsome nor ugly.

But the surface does not always speak the truth…

Their names were Tyler Armand and Alfonso Lane, and on this morning Tyler carried a tray with marked vials of pills, the empty vials on the sides of the tray and notes underneath the still-full ones (a few stained with the remains of a spilled coffee) while Alfonso took a ring of keys off his belt, jingling them as he inserted them into the door of a room marked 13. Whatever their reasons, Tyler and Alfonso were not nice men, and they had not taken the jobs of MHA (Mental Health and Addiction) workers for the benefit of mankind. It might have been better if it was just a paycheck to them, but they did not possess even that excusable callousness. Their dysfunctions ran deeper, in the streams that fed bullies who picked on the weak and the helpless. They were not monsters…but they were not good men either, and hence more then a few patients in the hospital had come to fear them.

Perhaps that was why they had been transferred down to this floor with the minimum-security wards: it was easier to detect abuse on certain levels then others. If that was the case, neither realized it. It was their first morning on this floor, and for the moment neither had been given a real chance to start things over again.

As Alfonso finished unlocking the door and opened it as Tyler walked into room 13.

The number should have been an omen.

Though that was again lost on the two: to them, it definitely smelled better then some of the other rooms, and was relatively neat for the few possessions it had: a bed, a closet, and a small plastic chair in the corner…in which sat the occupant of the room.

Clad in the usual gray sweats and shirt the patients wore, the occupant of room 13, his skin dull from lack of sun and his posture slumped over in his chair, would seem like any other patient…until you saw his hair. Once a perfect white and gravity defying, it was now dull and limp, casting over the patient's eyes and hiding his face as he sat in the chair, leaning on his arms as he rested them on his upper legs, as if intently studying the ground.

Since Tyler's hands were full, Alfonso knocked on the door to get the patient's attention.

"Pill time nutto." Tyler said, and even if he'd left out the impertinence from the last word his tone would have said it all.

As Noel Collins looked up at the words, his eyes not showing dull nescience but low surprise, and beneath that, clarity.

"…you must be mistaken. I'm not on any medication." Noel said calmly.

"Nope, it says your name right here." Tyler said, very briefly looked at the stained paper that had the room number on it.

"Then I suggest you double check it. I don't need any pills."

"Well…" Alphonse said, as he checked the note. "Dr. Jones thinks you do, and I'm not one to argue with the docs."

"I am not being treated by Doctor Jones. My physician is Dr. Sidlakus. You're making an error. I am not taking any pills." Noel replied.

Tyler sneered at the patient, and Noel narrowed his eyes.

"Just check the note CLOSELY. Is it THAT hard?" Noel asked.

"I _DID._" Alphonse growled back, in a tone that indicated to Noel that not only had he NOT done that, he really didn't care. He cared more about the fact that Noel was being condescending to him. "I don't need a nutjob telling me how to read. Just take the damn pills and you can talk to Dr. Jones later."

"Are you aware that if you give me medication I don't need, it could prove fatal?" Noel intoned.

Alphonse rolled his eyes.

"If the medication was at a dosage that could prove fatal, you'd have to be in the infirmary and be in a life threatening situation that the medication would relieve, not make worse. Considering that it's only TWO, the doctors would be sure they don't react badly to begin with. So cut this shit and just take the pills."

"So you can think. You just choose not to." Noel said quietly. "A tragedy I am all too familiar with."

"Look asshole, I don't care how clever you think you are, you're either going to take the pills, or there will be consequences." Tyler growled, as he handed the tray off to Alphonse and reached into his pocket: he might not have been allowed to carry weapons like security but reading a book had given him the idea of carrying a roll of quarters: it helped deal with problems quite well, problems being a relative term to Tyler.

"I'm not on any pills." Noel replied.

"Look loony, here's how the world works. You're LOCKED UP HERE, because you're INSANE. We're not, and so we make the decisions. Now take the pills like a GOOD BOY." Tyler said, pulling out the roll of quarters.

Noel looked at it.

"…I am not a good boy." Noel said, as he looked up at them. "And it seems that will be very bad for you."

* * *

It took several seconds for the security to hear the racket down the hallway, but they were quick on their feet when they did, running to the source of the noise, a general fracas that quickly flowed into a yelling voice. 

"SEE? These pills are labeled for ALLEN OSSEN. My name is ALEX OZ. You just glanced at the paper and assumed you knew better, you pieces of shit! You think you can…!"

And that was where the security came in, bursting into the room to find Noel holding Tyler by the throat with one hand and shoving a coffee-stained piece of paper in his face with the other. Tyler looked a bit too out of it to understand what Noel was doing; his partner Alphonse was lying groaning on the floor, amidst the remains of scattered pills and quarters.

Noel might have lost his mind, but he hadn't lost his fighting skills.

Or his reflexes, for as security barged in Noel twisted Tyler around and got behind him, even as he dropped the paper and snatched up the keys Alphonse had used to enter the room, sliding one between his pointer and middle finger and pressing it against the side of Tyler's throat.

"STOP!" Noel ordered. "I'LL KILL HIM!"

The security did stop, if only in surprise, as Noel backed up a bit, dragging Tyler with him.

"Anyone takes another step into this room I punch as big a hole in his carotid artery as I can manage and he bleeds out in two minutes max. BACK OFF. NOW." Noel snarled.

"…….Sir, we can't legally leave. Just calm down, we don't want to hurt you…" One of the security officers said.

"Fetch Dr. Sidlakus, if you haven't started already. Best be quick. I'm in a BAD mood." Noel said, pressing the key in deeper.

"Come on buddy, don't do something you'll regret…"

"I've run out of room in my heart for regrets." Noel replied bitterly.

It did not take long for the mentioned Dr. Sidlakus to appear: he was an older man, in his sixties at least, small and thin with short gray hair on his head. But he had a face that was kind enough, as he stepped through the security to where Noel was still standing with his hostage.

"I suppose it's safe to assume you're not feeling all that great, Alex." Dr. Sidlakus said, as he motioned for the guards and other MHA's to back up.

"I'll forgive you for not being omniscient Dr. Sid, but your hiring policies need work." Noel replied.

"I'm not in charge of human resources, unfortunately. What's wrong with these two?"

"Check the paper on the floor. Is my name on ANY part of it?" Noel replied.

His age made the task somewhat difficult, but Dr. Sidlakus did bend down and pick up the note, peering at it with some difficulty. "It's hard to say with this…coffee on it."

"Well then, am I on any medication? In terms of a daily dose type?"

"None that I've prescribed." Dr. Sidlakus said, still looking at the note. "And certainly none prescribed by Dr. Jones. She only treats the severely schizophrenic around here after all."

"That's what I told them. But they wouldn't listen. They insisted they were right on the basis of their position. They reacted to my points with scorn and mockery, and when I didn't back down, outright aggression. I will NOT tolerate being bullied, especially by those who think a little power gives them the right to act like this!" Noel snapped. "I want them both fired. If you're smart, you'll see they're fired. I can look after myself when I'm lucid, Doctor. I'd hate to think what these pieces of shit are doing to those who can't fight back."

"Unfortunately, I don't have that power, Alex. I can recommend it, and considering the severity of the slip up, they'll at least be suspended, but I can't promise something I may not be able to do." Dr. Sidlakus said. "Just because I have some power does not mean it extends to everything as it is with them. The difference between me and them and that I'm aware of my limitations. They fail to realize that because they are supposedly mentally balanced while patients are not, that does not mean they are any more intelligent or morally stable. I would be overstepping that boundary if I tried anything beyond a recommendation, the same way you're overstepping a boundary if you try to hurt them just because you're upset. They messed up and you claim they have a bad attitude. Is that really worth trying to kill them?"

"I really wonder." Noel said. "But one thing I DO know is that I don't care to be restrained, drugged to the gills, and thrown in a room trussed up like a turkey because of other people." Noel said, with the indication that was the whole point of this song and dance: to avoid THAT song and dance.

"Alex, I don't want that either, but you're threatening to slice someone's throat open with a key. Considering that the security officers WILL detain you if you're a threat to yourself or others, the only way to ensure that you aren't treated that way is to let him go and to let the medical team take them to the infirmary for an evaluation. I've already told the guards to let me speak with you before they take action, so don't worry about a sneak attack or something low. Besides, that would undermine your progress and hinder any other work we do here. So what do you say? We can continue the conversation without the unpleasantries and eavesdropping."

Noel looked at his doctor, and he sighed.

"I don't like hurting people." Noel said as he took the key away from Tyler's throat and tossed it on the ground before Dr. Sidlakus. "But circumstances have made me very, VERY good at it. That's all I ask for…really…isn't it…" Noel said, sounding much more like he was asking himself then anyone else in the room.

The guards moved into the room, retrieving a groaning Tyler and Alphonse, tense in case Noel tried something, but the urge to fight had drained out of Noel, as he sat down and held his forehead in his hands.

"I spent all the time away relieving nightmares…and even when I wake they follow me…" He murmured to himself.

"Sometimes we can't escape our nightmares." Dr. Sidlakus said. "The only way to deal with them is to accept them."

"If you only knew…" Noel said cryptically. "If you only knew…"

* * *

_Writing._

_Carved in crude stone, metal, wood. A man's verbal and mental messages immortalized, or at least preserved for a time. No more need to pass stories and wisdom from one person to the next, one could place one's idea in a so-called indestructible form, in theory anyway, preserving the originals and saving them from alteration, from deviation._

_Perhaps that was the thought. Words were malleable, but writing was, in some cases literally, cast in stone._

_Yet today, how we look at an event written from seven different perspectives and wonder which one this planet saw, we can only wonder, how this technique made to make record keeping simple, made everything so damn complicated._

* * *

**Entry for Patient No 2522, Alexander Oz **

**July 2****nd****, 200X**

**From Dr. Luke Sidlakus**

**For someone who is so open in our discussions, I find it strange how very little I actually know about Mr. Oz. I am certain that is a pseudonym, but it was the name he was signed in under and responds to, so that is how I will address him until there is a change in the matter.**

**The exact circumstances of his arrival are still strange to me: he arrived when I was on a leave of absence and when I returned my first meeting with him was accompanied by Dr. Hastings who was carrying various papers: it seemed that if things had gone a different way, I would have had to sign them. However, that did not seem to be the case, and I was assigned to his treatment. Mr. Oz was catatonic at the time and had virtually no response to stimuli. He has improved since then, but he still has periods of severe disassociation, states of mind that are coupled with insomnia. When he is lucid, he suffers severe depression. Depression is usually coupled with oversleeping, but in his case it's taken to an extreme with going to bed exceptionally early and waking late in the day, sometimes with naps in between. I offer antidepressants to curb these symptoms at each session, but he consistently refuses to take any medication, even as the symptoms worsen.**

**Aside from that, Mr. Oz, until the incident today, did not seem to have any difficulties: when lucid, he was generally calm, collected, and polite, though he does not associate much with the other patients and doctors aside from myself. When he is not sleeping he spends most of his time in a corner of the common rooms observing the events, whatever they may be. I believe it may be related to his past life, which he has only given oblique details of. One aspect I have gathered is while he seems to hold deep affections of a natural sense for his mother, it is mirrored by an intense antipathy towards his father, whose every aspect Oz seems to despise. I believe this factor plays a role in his current illness, though I have yet to determine just how. It matches details of depersonalization disorder though: Mr. Oz seems to lack a solid identity, and seems to spend much of our sessions not so much speaking with me as probing himself. Abuse of himself or his mother is a possibility, but until I am able to glean more firm knowledge it is mere speculation.**

**A final strange note: Mr. Oz refuses to have any contact with the outside world. He refuses to read newspapers, watch television, and will even leave the room to avoid hearing details of recent actions that have occurred in the city and the world beyond. The only theory I have so far as to Mr. Oz's behavior is that he is attempting to remove himself from the world around him. He clearly wants no part in it and does his best to avoid taking part in anything involving other people. I've managed to establish a connection between him and myself for our sessions, but I have to be careful to avoid severing that trust.**

**I hope to speak to him later this day: agitation tends to cause Mr. Oz to regress into a comatose state shortly afterward. I will do my best to have a session with him before, and if, it does.**

* * *

"You know how you can supposedly tell if you're insane? If you can question if you're insane." Noel said quietly. 

Dr. Sidlakus looked at his patient, sitting in one of the chairs in his small office, away from the windows and near Sidlakus' wooden desk. He seemed to be studying the bookcase with encyclopedias and various other tomes that was on the other end of the room, but in reality his sight was turned inward: he was naval gazing once more.

"True." Dr. Sidlakus replied. "But it also depends on someone's definition of insanity. I recall once visiting the Joker when a colleague invited me to Arkham as an observer. The Joker introduced himself as the most insane person in the asylum, which made him the most sane person in the world. He convinced me that treating criminals was not my ambition. So, what would your definition be?"

"…thinking I was making a difference." Noel said quietly.

"If I may ask, in what?"

"…did your father serve in the war?"

Dr. Sidlakus was silent for a moment, which caused Noel to look up at him.

"My father fought for Germany. My mother heard of the camps through her meeting with other officer's wives. She had more loyalty to religion then country, and we fled to America as refugees. She changed our names to erase our past, and we started over."

"…Oh." Noel said. "…I can relate. I did something similar. Except I took it another step…and in that…"

"Starting a new life is never easy. I remember that I barely knew any English and when our neighbors learned we were from Germany, I was not allowed to attend school. My mother had to learn English from the priest at a church, and I learned it from her." Dr. Sidlakus said. "People can be cruel in their prejudices."

"At least their cruelties are simple." Noel said.

"Not always. I may not have been allowed to attend school and I was teased by other children for my dress and accent, but Japanese were imprisoned in camps for years in California, regardless of their citizenship status. Because I was white, I was trustworthier, even though I was a first generation immigrant from the country that started the war. As prejudices build and become numerous, cruelties become more creative and horrible."

"I know. I fought the Red Panzer. 60 years gone and people…" Noel said, before realizing he had made a slip and clammed up.

"Red Panzer? That must have been interesting."

"He was trying to make a race-specific virus to carry out 'a long needed thinning of the herd'. I should have shoved him in an oven."

Noel realized he'd blurted out stuff again and looked cross at the fact, crossing his arms and turning away from Dr. Sidlakus.

Strangely, the doctor chuckled.

"So what DID you do?"

"Not enough. It doesn't matter. There's been four of them." Noel said. "It ties into what I said about insanity. Only the truly insane never question if they're insane. They have no doubts at all. If you question if you're insane, you have to be sane in the first place."

"Do you question it?"

"Daily. Hourly. It's the very core of what I tried. Madness. Madness vs madness." Noel said. "…I assume you heard of the Final Night."

"Of course."

"…why did a bunch of stupid kids go fight a god? What were they thinking? W…they should have all died out there on the sand. Sometimes I think they survived just so life could heap more shit on them." Noel said. "…the man…the thing that did it…he believed, without a doubt, that it was the right thing to do. He hated the world that much."

"Maybe he loved it that much."

Noel gave his doctor a withering glare.

"You weren't there."

"Well the man was obviously insane. Chances are he interpreted his actions as a display of his appreciation of the world, by preserving what he thought was the best part of it. Similar to the thought pattern of the Red Panzer."

Noel was silent for a few seconds.

"I was never going to hurt that asshole, you know." Noel said.

"I know, but the guards didn't, and if I did anything they considered risky, not only would they have jumped you, but I would no longer be able to treat you."

"…I could have taken them. Once. Easily." Noel murmured.

"Had you, you would have been relocated to maximum security and been pumped full of tranquilizers."

"It's irrelevant. What made me special now is gone…I abused its gift and it left me. I can't feel it any more. I wonder if I ever will." Noel said, as he stared at his hands. "Maybe it was never there to begin with. Maybe it was always all in my head. Even this."

"Talents don't just disappear. It's part of you. Perhaps you feel you can't access it because of the stress you're under."

"…it doesn't matter…when I should have served it best…I fell for it…I fell…I wanted to…damn…damn, I wanted to…" Noel drifted off, staring off in the distance at something only he could see.

"Mr. Oz? Are you there? Mr. Oz?" Dr. Sidlakus said, as he snapped his fingers a few times. Noel did not reply.

The doctor sighed and pressed a button, summoning two MHA's to his office.

"Please take him back to his room, we're done for the day."

While Noel didn't dead weight the two men, they still had some difficulty removing him from his chair and taking him out.

"He weighs a ton." One of them commented.

"If it's so difficult for you, I can call additional help."

"We got it, but geez, what were they feeding this guy?" The MHA said as he and his partner took Noel away.

"Glass and air. Vitriol and sting." Noel suddenly murmured, and then went quiet again.

"…what?" One of the MHA's said. "You have any idea what that means, doc?"

"I'm not sure myself." Dr. Sidlakus replied as he wrote it down before he forgot. "Please make a note of anything else he might say while you take him back, please."

But Noel had no more comments, cryptic or otherwise, for the MHA's or anyone. They left him on his bed, staring dully at the ceiling.

* * *

**Entry for Patient No 2522, Alexander Oz**

**July 3****rd****, 200X**

**From Dr. Luke Sidlakus**

**My session with Mr. Oz confirms my theory: he enters depersonalization states to escape reality. The symptoms often include a dissociated state that causes the patient to feel separated from reality, as if in a dream or watching a movie. His feelings of worthlessness and apathy are his motives for entering these states. However, I have not yet deduced why Mr. Oz suffers from such severe depression. I can only surmise that he feels guilty for some failure he committed in the recent past, but he is exceedingly vague. I used some of my own history to probe for reactions, and I've found that he feels more connected when we speak of similar experiences. Prejudice and the flaws of humanity are at the forefront of his mind, so I'll continue to speak about them with him until I can gleam more details. **

**Unfortunately, for now, Mr. Oz has returned to one of his depersonalization states. It should last only a few days like the others. I'll use the time to analyze the recording of our session and plan the topics for the next session.**

**One last note: Mr. Oz surprised me by actually speaking clearly while already in his fugue. "Glass and air, vitriol and sting." I'm not sure of the meaning at the moment, but I will research it. Perhaps the meaning will become clear in future sessions.**

**I'm unsure if these sessions will benefit Mr. Oz since his condition consistently worsens each time we begin to make progress. If nothing else, his case will be a good study for my research papers. I can only hope that he continues to trust me; without that trust, there is nothing I can do for him.**

* * *

_The printing press._

_Before, books were rare, given only to the special, due to the extreme effort it was to reproduce them, But Guttenberg changed all that, allowing mass production. The Bible became written in vernacular, rather then classic Latin. Wisdom became a tool that could be obtained by the masses, rather then hoarded by the so-called elites of society._

_Yet if we took Guttenberg to a modern day news stand and showed him how he paved the way for such great things like Juggs and High Times and Soldier of Fortune, one has to wonder. Did he open a world of marvels…or find a way to sell the poison in an easily bottled form?_

* * *

Daniel Owens was surprised that the guy didn't creep him out. 

The behavior of mental facility patients, by their very nature, tended to be unsettling. You had paranoid schizophrenics having conversations with people who weren't there, manic-depressives going from zero to redline and back to zero in the space of ten seconds, and the neurotics who thought they were in a palace and each activity was their nightly entertainment. And they were just the rank and file: if you were 'lucky' you got 'characters', people who were not only troubled in some way but unique in their state, for better or for worse. There was Hector Gray, who insisted he was Plato, but had no idea who Plato was and would produce random babbling and mishmashes of overheard info as his 'philosophy'. Then there was Dianne Leah, who thought the fascist regime in North Korea hid microscopic bugs in the water and would not drink it (fortunately she did not seem to grasp that water made up a good part of all other liquids) or worse, bathe in it, which had resulted in a few unpleasant sessions when she grew so rank it was better to put up with her screaming and forcibly clean her than deal with her odor. Then there was Cindy Jessick, a small pixie-like girl and a recovering heroin addict who seemed to be less in the asylum for her drug problem and more so for the fact that she had a mean streak ten miles wide (she was not inherently sadistic, but if given a reason Daniel had never seen someone who could act as nasty as she could) and a mouth that trucker and sailors would stand back and look stunned at: she tended to have a worker watching her virtually all the time. Then there was Anthony Somethingorother, a whiny mama's boy who had once tried to get attention by committing suicide…by trying to strangle himself to death. And ignoring the fact he couldn't do such a thing by continuing to try and do so over and over nearly eight times. It would have almost been comical if it wasn't so sad.

And now there was this guy, with his weird white hair (could blondes go that high up the color spectrum?). Daniel had been there when he had been brought in, and he'd been witness to his quirk more then once. He always did the same thing whenever he came into the common room: he went to a corner and watched. Sometimes he took a chair, sometimes he stood (he was sitting on a stool today), but it was always the same corner, always the same behavior. If any patient approached him, he would be calm but generally closed off, sometimes dismissive and sometimes unresponsive. According to the chart his name was Alexander Oz, and he suffered from DDNOS (Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified) as well as depression. Depression, Daniel wasn't sure of, but he didn't seem much out of it, the way he watched the room. Almost like he was wondering what him being there meant. Not why was he there, but WHY was he there?

And then Daniel got another question, as Cindy was suddenly approaching him. Daniel had no idea if they'd met or spoken before, and if either possibility warranted alarm. Cindy, as mentioned, was 1 on 1 virtually all of the time, but her current watcher seemed AWOL at the moment…

"Hey, got a butt?" Cindy asked Noel. Noel looked over at the small woman.

"…sorry, I don't smoke." Noel said, and went back to watching the room.

"Your loss man." Cindy said. But she did not go away. Instead, she pulled up another stool and sat down next to Noel, popping a piece of gum into her mouth. "So what are you man, our guardian angel?"

"…pardon?"

"You're always fucking here, looking at us like we're under your fucking divine protection. Even the MHA's don't fucking keep as close an eye on us as you fucking do. What's your deal? You a fucking control freak?"

"…no…I'm just…" Noel said, and went quiet.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Cindy asked, as she poked Noel a few times. Daniel got ready to act if necessary: he'd heard what Mr. Oz had done a few days ago.

"I wonder." Noel replied.

"Can you give a straight answer for fucking ANYTHING?"

"You've seen the parts of the world that end in places like this, miss. How often are straight answers to be found? I suggest your extensive use of profanity is one of the answers to the quest for answers."

"…..shit man that's fucking DEEP."

"No, if it was deep, it would help somebody." Noel said. "…I'd like to be alone please."

Cindy got a sour look on her face, but she listened, getting up and heading off.

For a few minutes.

Then she returned and grabbed Noel by the arm.

"You're off duty. We need someone to play Spades. You're elected." Cindy said, as she tried to drag Noel out of his corner.

"Huh?"

"Come on, you clearly speeke da fuckee English well, you should be able to comprehend a simple card game. Unless you're some kind of fucking idiot savant." Cindy said, as she pulled Noel out of his corner. Daniel went on alert, as did Cindy's returned watcher (whose name escaped Daniel) and another MHA across the room in case Alexander reacted badly to this (admitted) intrusion of his personal space.

"…no…just an idiot…" Noel murmured to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing…" Noel said as he let himself be dragged to a table and sat down to play Spades, a game similar to bridge. Daniel watched as he did play the game, but in such a way that it was clear he was focusing on the game the same way he had focused on the room: in a way, he was not so much playing it as examining it.

In the end, it had a result he didn't expect, as a female MHA came in and started rounding several people in the common room up for a group therapy session.

"And you're the last. Come on guys." The MHA said to the four playing Spades.

"What?" Noel asked.

"Oh, you must be new. Follow me. It's time for group therapy."

"…what?" Noel said, confused. He hadn't been in any group therapy sessions before. Had Dr. Sidlakus set this up? For what reason? And why hadn't be told Noel? Had there been another communication snafu, purposeful or accidentally?

One would wonder why, in the end, Noel went along with the four, but in Noel's mind, this wasn't the same as pills. Maybe this was legit. Only one way to find out.

* * *

Noel found out: it was another error. 

But by the time he'd puzzled that out, the group session of about a dozen patients, including Cindy, had started under the care of Dr. Holly Sessler. It happened around the time when one had started talking about what had happened to the relationship with his parents when he'd become addicted to crack cocaine, and Noel realized this was a group session for drug abusers. Out of politeness for the patient, Noel decided to wait until he was finished before he interrupted and excused himself.

He never got the chance, for the moment the patient (what was his name, Charles?) stopped talking, another patient immediately STARTED talking. Noel looked over to her, a very overweight woman in a wheelchair, as she started talking about her own addiction to painkillers…which segued into how she had recovered with the help of Jesus.

Which went on.

And on.

And on. The woman simply would not shut up. Even when the doctor tried to make her stop (and from Dr. Sessler's attempts Noel learned her name was apparently Shirley), she would just talk over the doctor. Cindy slowly grew more and more pissed looking, as Shirley continued to blabber on and on, her tone becoming steadily more obnoxious in its utter obliviousness of how rude she was being.

Noel found himself beginning to grind his teeth as the woman brought up for the ninth time she had been saved via Jesus and that everyone here should be too. She just would NOT shut up. Noel glanced around, noting the looks of aggravation not just on several of the patients' faces, but on the MHA's present at the time. Noel glanced back at Dr. Sessler, who Noel had judged to be a decent person, but clearly incapable of controlling someone like Shirley.

"OH SHUT THE FUCK UP ROLLER PIG!" Cindy finally erupted.

"DON'T YOU TALK TO ME THAT WAY! YOU'RE A DEVIL! YOU'RE A DEVIL AND YOU'LL BE BURNING IN HELL!" Shirley shrieked back, and the MHA's had to get involved, which finally got Shirley to quiet down for a bit. Amazingly, Cindy was not removed from the room, or considering what she'd done, maybe not so amazingly.

"Does anyone else want to…" Dr. Sessler began.

"JESUS chose ME to go to heaven, you must…" Shirley started up again. Noel had had enough.

"Excuse me!" Noel said, cutting Shirley off. "I think I'm in the wrong session. I don't have a problem of this variety."

"Hold on a moment sir. Shirley I must…"

"No, really, miss. I'm not here for drug addiction, there's been a scheduling error, I should really go…" Noel said.

"Don't deny you have a problem! That's the devil's work! You need to accept help, like Jesus…!" Shirley ranted.

"I'm not TALKING to you." Noel said. "I'm not kidding you should…"

"How dare you be so rude! Your mother should have spanked you more! She's probably burning in hell for…!"

No one saw Noel move: one second he was sitting and facing Dr. Sessler and the next he was across the circle and right in Shirley's face, his hands planted on her wheelchair arms as he looked at her in cold, violent fury, a look so intense it actually succeeding in scaring Shirley silent.

"SHUT. UP." Noel snarled in a tone that could scar metal. "Or there will be CONSEQUENCES."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! HELP! THE DEVIL'S GOING TO KILL ME!" Shirley screamed, as Noel pushed himself away from the woman and held up his arms as the MHA's approached to indicate he wasn't going to get violent.

"Quiet! Calm down everyone! Please! Be calm!" Dr. Sessler tried to command. "Sir, please sit down…!"

"YOU'RE THE DEVIL! YOU'LL BURN IN HELL! YOU'LL BURN IN HELL!" Shirley screamed.

"OH SHUT YOU FAT HOLE YOU FUCKING ROLLER CUNT!" Cindy screamed back, and before the MHA's could react, focusing on Noel, she herself got up, grabbed Shirley's wheelchair, and tipped it over, sending the overweight fundamentalist crashing to the ground with loud screams.

Chaos broke out, as Cindy's violent action finally stirred the patients to life as they started cheering and generally making loud approval noises and the MHA's found themselves overwhelmed trying to restrain a furious, struggling Cindy, a near foaming at the mouth Shirley, and a few other rowdy patients. Dr. Sessler did what she could to bring the session back under control.

In all the racket, Noel decided to show himself out before he started trying to kill someone. He REALLY wanted to inflict some harm on something.

And hence, when Dr. Sessler finally noticed several minutes later, Noel was long gone.

* * *

_Telephones._

_In 1873 Alexander Graham Bell spoke into a wire that took a message about a mile. 130 years later, satellites fly above us, ensuring that we stay connected at all times._

_For better or for worse. How many of us have been interrupted by a telemarketer in the middle of a meal, or prank-called in the middle of the night? And for an unlucky few, how many have had hundreds, thousands, millions of calls made by people who claim love and really mean something far worse? And how about those car accidents that happened because the driver is too busy yakking on his cell phone?_

_Still, nothing can sooth a crappy day then an unexpected call from someone who says they love you._

_Yet…isn't it funny…so many of us end a call by saying "keep in touch", when in the end, no contact was ever made…in the first place?_

* * *

Dr. Sidlakus was studying a file when the door abruptly opened and Noel walked in. 

"I'd like to have a session please." Noel said as the doctor looked up in mild alarm, as he went over to the couch and sat down on it. "Do you have a stress reliever? I'd rather not put my fist through a wall."

"Um…it's a bit unorthodox, but I have no prior engagements." Dr. Sidlakus said as he closed the file and produced a notepad and pencil. "Here. I don't have anything like a stress ball, but you're welcome to draw or write."

Noel seized the pad and began intensely scribbling for a few minutes, ripping the pages off messily as he ran out of room and throwing them aside. Dr. Sidlakus retrieved them, to find there were all the same.

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU…and so on, over and over, in furious jagged printing that more than once tore through the page.

"Not you." Noel said, as his writing pace slowed down and stopped, as he ripped off a few more pages and tossed them aside. "You may want to get on the phone and tell security where I am before they induce a lockdown looking for me."

"No worries. They'll look here after they look in your room. Let them search. Mind telling me what happened?"

"A series of errors. First I was accidentally put in an addictions therapy group. Not a problem. Then a fucking loud mouth self-righteous vile bitch dared to pass judgment on myself and my mother. Big problem and I still wish I'd strangled the air she's wasting out of her. I could have, you know. I cut off a man's hands once."

"From the sounds of it, I think I would have been so inclined had someone judged my mother. No wonder you were angry. But you've peaked my interest; what made you angry enough to cut someone's hands off?"

"Oh the usual. Was framed by someone for his crimes. Had my friends beat me up and condemn me for it. Then he tried to kill THEM." Noel muttered. "Then he beat me half to death, all the while glorifying in the pain and death he brought to people, especially women, and self-righteously declaring I deserved all I'd suffered because I'd dared 'steal' from him. Then he tried to kill me. The average, everyday reasons, you know. Are you familiar with Ayn Rand? " Noel said, as he began to draw again.

"No, I'm afraid I'm not."

"Really. She was a Russian philosopher, who escaped from the Soviet Union. She wrote that the proper way to live was hyper-individualism, and that altruism was just manipulation by others to ensure they could live by your effort. Looters, she called them. Of course, that's understandable: the communists ruined her father and she showed up in America during the Depression when pro-socialist values were in vogue. A good idea for bad reasons, and I feel that it becomes embodied in cases where psychotic misogynistic Australians are trying to kill you for the ultimate core reason that THEY'RE INSANE!" Noel snapped, as he ripped the page off and tossed it aside.

"So was the Australian the man whose hands you cut off?" Dr. Sidlakus asked as he retrieved the paper…which seemed to show what looked like Noel, except with different hair and cruel eyes. Words were scattered around the paper: BASTARD, NEVER, STAY IN ARKHAM, I WILL KILL YOU, and DAMN YOU.

"I used a subway train. It was convenient." Noel muttered.

"How did you manage it with a train?"

"Because I'm just that fucking METAL." Noel snapped in reply, and went quiet as he started drawing again.

Silence for a bit.

"…when was the first time you saw someone fly?" Noel abruptly asked.

"…well, there wasn't much activity like that even in the States at the time, but the first time was with a man in a red costume with a green cape. He seemed assisted by a rod…"

"Starman. Ted Knight. Good man. Helped invent the A-Bomb and was noble enough to be tormented by it for years. Before that became 'the in-thing'." Noel said with finger quotes. "His son Jack was a damn good guy as well, or so I hear…I guess not all Jacks are bad eggs…what's in a name…that which…nothing comes up roses…" Noel murmured.

"Was Jack the name of the man whose hands you cut off?"

"Irredeemable…in love with his twisted version of the world…and yet he was more honest with himself than I was…he said I'd end up in the same place…how could he be right…why…for pity's sake what did I do…is my lineage that cursed…" Noel muttered, as he started to rock back and forth.

"Alex? Are you all right?" Dr. Sidlakus asked. Noel sighed.

"When did you first see Superman?"

"…Not until I was in my mid-forties…Sometime in the early nineties or late eighties, I believe."

"And what did you think? A man who could make miracles, and he was for truth, justice, and the American way. Tell the truth doctor. Look at policemen and army soldiers, and give me your professional opinion."

"He gave me hope. The tension between the Soviets and America along with all the other tension in the world was a source of great fear when combined with all the other dangers of the world…but if someone was willing to stand up to threats for the sake of the innocent, maybe others would as well."

"…to defend the innocent…to protect hope…damn him…damn him…I…" Noel muttered. "…I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat."

Noel leaned back and sighed.

"I don't feel like talking any more. You'd best have someone take me back to my room."

"Alright." Dr. Sidlakus said, as he headed back to his desk. "Would you like to keep the notepad and pencil?"

"Too tempted I might ram it in my eye to stop seeing what my hands have wrought." Noel murmured.

"What?"

"Nothing. No." Noel said, and went silent again.

"Alright. I'd like to schedule a session for tomorrow if you're feeling up to it." Dr. Sidlakus said as he called the MHA's.

"Do you see the red visage peering from the shadows?"

"What?" Dr. Sidlakus said.

"Oh. Guess it was me. Maybe it WAS me. Perhaps it will never be." Noel said. "Descent into heat. Broken lying mirror."

"…I'll just write it in. You're welcome to come back in the meantime if you'd like to talk." Dr. Sidlakus said as two MHA's entered, the same as yesterday. "Take him to room 13 please. We're done for the day. Oh, and make sure he's eaten too."

"Yes sir." One of them said, as they took Noel out.

"…they raped Sleeping Beauty, you know. Perhaps while eating lung and liver." Noel told the MHA's as they escorted Noel down the hall.

"…well, hopefully it was cooked. That stuff looks bad enough, let alone raw." One of the MHA's replied.

Noel said nothing more, as the MHA's left him in his room, staring at whatever has so fascinated him a few days ago.

* * *

**Entry for Patient No 2522, Alexander Oz**

**July 6****th****, 200X**

**From Dr. Luke Sidlakus**

**Once again, Mr. Oz proves to be a very interesting case. Despite his lucidity and clear understanding of the world around him, he sometimes takes a turn into the absurd. I'm uncertain if his ramblings are literal, symbolic, or nonsense. Given his personality, I assume that his words have some meaning to him, enigmatic though they are. There was a lot of information in this session, but I'll have to review the recording before I make any conclusions about his condition.**

**Mr. Oz did reveal a consistent object of rage: a man whose hands he claims to have cut off. I can't be sure, but it's possible that this man is also the Australian man he mentioned, possibly with the name "Jack". Apparently, he used a subway train to remove his hands for framing him for crimes. I doubt the complete truth of his story, especially since he would have a criminal record for committing such an act, but considering his file is mostly restricted, I can't be sure. What is certain is that his violent tendencies are beginning to emerge. I'm sure that this sort of rage is not a recent development, but a dormant emotion that he's been trying to contain. I can't say it's progress that he's begun to express his darker emotions, but it will allow me to dig deeper without fear of his regressing without warning signs. **

**If he enters another depersonalized state, I may have to avoid the topic of this Australian man. If he doesn't, I'll probe deeper. If nothing else, he is a symbol to Mr. Oz, one deeply connected to his rage. **

**Finally, Mr. Oz mentioned seeing a red apparition before leaving my office. Hopefully he is not hallucinating and only saw a trick of the light. If he becomes schizophrenic, as he would with the symptoms he's beginning to show, his treatment will become exceedingly difficult without medication. I'll consider the matter if it comes to it.**

**I've scheduled a session for tomorrow. Perhaps I can clear up some of the mysteries he's given me.**

* * *

The next day looked to be nice, though that fact was probably lost on more then a few patients of the Edge City Asylum, as well as a few employees as the sun began to emerge over the horizon. 

Illuminating the yet-unlit halls as the man walked through them, accompanied by a large orderly, this one well muscled and with a few inches on the doctor, who was quite tall and lank himself, with black hair cut close to the skull and with a semi long face. Dressed in a suit rather then more casual clothing and a white jacket, the man and his orderly continued down the hallway for a bit before stopping in front of a door numbered 11.

"And this is?" The man asked the orderly, who consulted a sheet.

"A Rebecca Miles. Real screwed up fruit loop. Likes to hurt people, doesn't matter if it's with sharp things or blunt things. Real savage. I would not recommend going in doc. She has a tendency to use her nails."

"Does her physician have her on any medication to control her outbursts?"

"Everything. Her body breaks it down in record time. She's real strong that way, ain't she blessed." The orderly said sourly. "You're never sure when she's actually drugged or just luring you. It's why we pretty much just leave her locked in the room all the time."

"Perhaps he should try some tranquilizers then. Thorazine may be outdated, but its replacements work wonders." The man said. "I'll suggest it to him."

The man moved on, followed by the orderly, until they came to another room.

Room 13.

"This is the one who attacked the two orderlies several days ago?"

"Yeah, then the fucker snowballed the docs into the claim it was their fault and got off scott-free. Pardon my French doc." The orderly said.

"Just be sure no one else hears comments like that; the other doctors would mind. Which doctor handled the matter?"

"Doc Sid. I mean Dr. Sidlakus. Which surprises me, you know? He struck me as a smart cookie. But this guy claims he was jumped, yet it was my friends who got the bruises, y'know? You get what I'm sayin'?"

"Yes. I understand." The apparent doctor said. "Strange circumstances as well. Is he on any medication?"

"No. He refuses it."

"Hmph. After behavior like that, it's a wonder Dr. Sidlakus doesn't reconsider. Shall we?"

"All right doc, but be careful. I'm gonna be." The orderly said as he produced some keys and once again unlocked Noel's door.

Noel was not sitting and staring at the ground this time. This time he was up. Quite literally up, as he was balancing on one arm, hand firmly gripped on the end of his bed, as he did one-armed handstand pushups, sweat running in rivers down his bare chest, rife with the scars of past battles that Raven hadn't quite been able to clear away. From how he'd positioned his bed, his back was to the door, but he heard it open, momentarily freezing in place, his arm quivering as he briefly held himself up.

And then he let his legs tip over, thudding down on his feet, as he rolled the arm he'd been exercising at the shoulder and cracked the fingers, as he wiped his sweaty hair out of his face as best he could, his eyes narrowing as he took in the unfamiliar faces.

"Yes?" He asked in a mostly neutral tone, the terseness only faintly underlying it.

"…well that's different. If you'd like to exercise, we have some facilities." The doctor said.

"I'm fine. And you are?"

"Dr. Phale. I'm just checking all the new patients. I hear you've had a lot of activity lately."

Noel's eyes examined the doctor, his appearance and manner, as his vision flicked to the orderly behind him, examining him in turn before returning his gaze to Dr. Phale.

"You mean you think I'm a lying nutcase for beating the shit out of that ape behind you's friends. You are, like many I've known, so very wrong." Noel said as he continued to flex and roll his shoulders.

Phale's mild manner faded.

"I don't appreciate being judged so callously when I've done nothing to deserve it."

"Then you clearly have no idea what's at the heart of life, do you! Or we wouldn't get women microwaving their babies, or child molesters mailing pieces of their victims to their families, or gangs forcing sons to rape their mothers and then pouring bleach in his eyes so that appalling act would be the last thing they see! Deserve'd got nothin' to do with it, Herr doctor." Noel said as he sat down on the bed. "Do you wish to discuss something specific?"

"…no, I believe I've heard what's needed. Good day." Dr. Phale said, as he left the room.

The orderly paused for a moment, giving Noel a dirty look.

"Try it. Please." Noel said. "I annihilate shits like you on my days off from kicking ass."

If the orderly did indeed want to challenge Noel, he did not attempt it then, as he turned and left the room, closing and locking the door behind him.

Noel sat there for a moment, and then, lacking any aggressors, seemed to deflate.

"…then again…who says I'm any better…then those people…" Noel said quietly to himself. "They…had the excuse of not knowing better…how can I say…I didn't…?"

* * *

_TV._

_The greatest creation of all, some may say. The ultimate escape from a harsh, brutal reality. For all books and radio and movies could do, TV was the nirvana: a steady diet of lies and impossible dreams fed to you daily, in between commercials for Jello and second-hand cars._

_Forget God making man in his own image. Man could now make himself in his own image, put it on a screen, and watch as all the shit hits all the fans, all in the comfort of your own living room._

_A better reality for those who hated theirs, caught up in a form that could never be touched or brought down._

* * *

"You see what I mean, Dr. Hattings?" Daniel Owens, pointing to Noel behind the glass of the nurse's station. "Like clockwork, all the time. All he ever does." 

"Well, maybe he just prefers his solitude." The wiry doctor with the crazy hair said. "Is he on any medication?"

"None listed so far. Though I think its time for meds for the rest. Nurse Matthews?"

"I'll begin sir." A plump nurse said as she stood and went to retrieve cups filled with various patients' medications.

"We'd best have some extra help. Where's Elijah?"

"Here sir." Elijah Morrison said as he was suddenly next to the pair, making them start.

"That was fast." Dr. Hastings said.

"It's a gift. You should see Danny here. I might be fast, but he's so quiet sometimes I swear he's a damn ghost."

"He's looking at us Doctor." Daniel suddenly said, and Dr. Hastings turned from his conversation with Elijah to see that Noel was indeed regarding them. But the scrutiny was unspecific, and Noel did not turn away when the doctors and orderlies returned his gaze.

"What do you think he's thinking?" Elijah asked.

"He's suffering from an uncertain dissociative disorder, right? It's not uncommon for people like that to glean details from subconscious viewing and put together an entirely new world in their head with such things. Or maybe he doesn't see us at all. It's hard to say."

"Yeesh. Considering how much time he spends sleeping and out of it, I wonder how many stories he's put together in his head about us."

"Who can say?" Dr. Hastings said, and turned back to Nurse Matthews as she returned with the pills. "Ah thank you Miss Sophie."

If Noel was aware of the four employees of the asylum and what they were saying, he gave no sign. He just continued to watch as those who actually took medication, and then kept on watching the room, occasionally changing his viewpoint.

When Daniel came to take him for his appointment that day with Dr. Sidlakus, there remained no answers if he'd taken it all in or hadn't seen a thing.

* * *

"I lied to my friends." Noel said. 

"…why would you do that?" Dr. Sidlakus asked, as Noel lay on the couch, staring at the ceiling.

"Because they wouldn't have understood." Noel said. "They wouldn't have…accepted what I'd had to do."

"Are you sure? They're your friends after all."

Noel sighed again…and then got up, pulling out a chair and sitting down in front of the desk.

"Due to a ill-timed stunt, I was sent to attend a series of meetings with others who shared certain…life attributes with me. During these meetings we are generally discouraged to 'do outside work', or if we must, keep it subtle, as all of us in one place could be said to disrupt the status quo. I found that I did need some more mental stimulation then I was getting, so I went looking, subtly of course. My explorations caused me to cross paths with a police-trained paramedic named Virginia Gentry. Originally I was just providing some…outside help, but afterwards she got in touch with me to put forth something she had observed. She had noticed an abnormally large cluster of either DOA or DSAA patients at the primary hospital she worked at that all seemed to fit a trend: they had done something bad. Drug dealers with minor gunshot wounds, drunk drivers who had badly hurt people in crashes, and so on, all abruptly dying when you think they wouldn't. She didn't have much at the time besides a sense of unease, but I decided I'd investigate it with her. But before we could really get anywhere, the meetings ended and I had to return home. She told me she'd contact me if she found anything viable or if she needed my help…and eventually she did. And at the time, since I didn't know what was going on, I decided it would be best to handle alone. So I made up an excuse that I had to go back to finish up some last bit of the meeting missed before, and I headed back…too late. She was dead."

Noel was quiet for a bit.

"…supposedly…she was in an exercise with her fellow officers…and she had an accident, fell over a balcony in a training house, suffered a neck injury, and in the hospital, they gave her the wrong medicine, or too much, and she died. I was…upset. But it got worse, as events transferred so that I stumbled over a file she'd hidden away for me just in case something like this happened. And what that file told me, and where it led me too…"

Noel was silent again.

"It was worse then she thought. There was actually a CONSPIRACY, composed of members of the police, fire, and medical department at the hospital Virginia worked at, to put 'bad people' who had come in with injuries to death. Their motivation was simply…they were tired. Tired of innocent families being wiped out by alcoholics who walked away with broken limbs. Tired of kids getting shot in drive-by's. Tired of a society that just seemed to be breaking apart more and more every day. The only solution they could see was, in a way, the final solution. And when Virginia got too close, and it was apparent she wouldn't share such a cold morality…they killed her. Her death was no accident. Her CO-WORKERS, her FRIENDS, who worked in the police and hospital, pushed her over the balcony in the confusion of the exercise, and purposely gave her the wrong drug. Because she would have exposed them, you see. Because she'd have ruined their system of justice. In the end, to avoid the hardships of the other path, they chose to sacrifice her instead. They loved her. And they still killed her."

Silence.

"…..I was furious beyond all belief. The vile they unleashed…there was evidence to be found, the ability to bring the perpetrators to justice properly…I tossed it aside. I found one and I broke him. I made him feel the rage he'd awoken in his choice and used it to force a confession to the proper authorities…all in such a fashion that my anger wouldn't snarl up the aftermath. And with the case blown open, by my own manipulations, I went and brought down as many of the rest as I could. And I hurt them, with my fists and with bitter, judgmental words, crushing them under my boot for their crimes. I thrust aside law, and even justice, and sought instead my own release from the storm they'd set into motion in me. And when it was all done, and they were all in jail awaiting charges and trial and all the usual, I slept the sleep of the just that night and sang along to the radio in the car on my way home."

Silence, once again.

"…I no longer derive any peace from those choices. Instead…it just shows me for what I really am…and how I deserve worse then those I destroyed. At least they believed in their system of judgment. At least they weren't hypocrites."

"I'd have to disagree." Dr. Sidlakus said. "Anyone willing to kill one of their own for any sort of 'justice' is a hypocrite. You, on the other hand, didn't kill anyone. You may have hurt them, but in the end, you let the justice system work it out after exposing them."

"I dropped a water tower on a man with no care whether he survived or not. He did. He ascended. He used my failure to take the lives of thousands." Noel said dully. "The reason I cut off Jack's hands is because I needed a substitute for cutting off his head. And my father…I'll kill him. One day. If I spend the rest of my life here, I will ensure there is a reason for it…damn them all…damn them all…" Noel said as he put his face in his hands.

"Have you ever wondered if it was better to let someone else have the responsibility?" Dr. Sidlakus asked. Noel looked at him, his expression uncomprehending.

"You're overburdening yourself. Is all this anger worth being here and the risk of losing your friends?"

"I have NO CHOICE!" Noel snapped. "He's IN ME! Racing through my veins, crackling in my brain. Every choice I make for myself rather then others is guided by his hand! And those choices…they're the satisfying ones! And…no…I can't be him…I won't be him…I'll tear myself apart before I let him…should have killed him…was made to kill him…was too eager to kill him…heroes don't kill, heroes are dead…" Noel babbled, rocking back and forth.

"Alex?"

"I'm sorry Crystal…I'm sorry Raven…I let you down…I promised to be something I can't and pretended to be something I'm not…and the thing I am…I'll kill myself first…damn it…damn it all…" Noel mumbled…and then abruptly went still, before leaning back in his chair. "I can't see the future I saw on those miles of glass. All I can see is the gleam of the blade."

"Alex, is it possible that he wanted you to do this? That giving in is playing into his hands with this as the result?"

Noel looked at Dr. Sidlakus.

"…he knows nothing. And in that, everything." Noel said. "…………..Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?"

And Noel leaned back from the chair.

"I'm not proper today. I need a break. Maybe later, doctor."

"Alright. Are there any activities you'd like to try to help relax during the day?"

"…my room…no…might be him…he of the dark gaze, real or not…" Noel said. "Maybe elsewhere. Don't know where. Elsewhere."

"…did someone visit your room?" Dr. Sidlakus asked, curious.

"He who in his understanding, learned to understand less. Trouble, he'll be. Oh look, I'm Yoda now. Mmmmmm, yes." Noel said. "Got any gum?"

Dr. Sidlakus chuckled and gave Noel some. "Who was he?"

"To me, his name will inevitably be apt." Noel said, and lapsed into silence, chewing on his gum.

Dr. Sidlakus looked at his patient, deciding to look into it. "Would you like to stay here a while or would you prefer to go to your room?"

"…unsure. Will let fate carry me where it will…may it be kinder." Noel said.

"Well, I don't want you heading back so early today. I'll have the MHA's take you to the common room for a bit." Dr. Sidlakus said as he scratched down a note. "Give them this when you want to head back."

Noel took the note silently, and said nothing as the MHA's came and took him back to the common room.

The calm before the storm.

* * *

**Entry for Patient No 2522, Alexander Oz**

**July 7****th****, 200X**

**From Dr. Luke Sidlakus**

**Mr. Oz is becoming increasingly cryptic and violent, not only in his behavior, but in his manner. He's more defensive and even threatens to kill someone who is supposedly manipulating his behavior. He also tells stories of trying to kill other people, but never succeeding. I fear he may be developing paranoid delusions if the stories he tells are not fact, but if they are true, I have to convince him that he can make his own choices. Unfortunately, when faced with the responsibility of his actions, he becomes remorseful and introverted. He has a clear desire to kill certain people in his life, but he refuses to act on those desires because he fears becoming a hypocrite. That paradox leaves him in torment, so I must persuade him that he must eliminate that desire somehow. I'll try to develop an exercise or stress relief for him to do whenever he feels such anger, but he needs the satisfaction of releasing that anger without guilt. I have to be careful not to push him into another depersonalized state. I'm not sure if he'll want to try anymore if he doesn't show any progress.**

Elijah didn't think they'd be trouble when Cindy approached the returned Alexander Oz: according to Daniel the two had been cordial to each other, and Cindy had apparently been asking around for him. So when Alexander had returned and resumed his position in the corner, she'd made a beeline for him.

**Mr. Oz mentioned two more people, though they are probably symbols. Crystal and Raven possibly could be names, but they're not common, especially Raven. I'll look up the symbolic meaning of each, but if they don't match Mr. Oz's personality, I may have to ask the Superintendent for access to the restricted files. It's becoming increasingly difficult to treat him without medication or an inkling of his past, and any information in the files may be useful to me.**

"Hey! The Guardian Angel is back!" She said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Great work! Roller Pig's been in a permanent fit ever since you shut her up!"

"…what…?" Noel said, sounding dazed.

**There was also a visitor Mr. Oz mentioned, but due to his increasingly cryptic stories, I can't tell if someone did visit his room or not. He mentioned seeing a red specter before, but he didn't mention it was red in this session. I'll check with the other doctors to see if anyone went in; he's obviously agitated.**

"Don't feel bad. She's a nosy, self-righteous fat cunt and she deserved worse. I've never actually seen someone who managed to shut her up with words before! You're a fucking hero, man!"

**I will take a moment to review the recording; I want my current suspicions to remain fresh and recorded before I do my research.**

"…no……nonono NO DAMMIT! NO!" Noel suddenly screamed, as he reared off the stool, causing Cindy to recoil…as he abruptly turned and began slamming his head against the wall. "OUT! OUT! OUT!"

"Hey man don't!" Cindy yelled, trying to stop Noel, but he shook off her hands and she backed away as Elijah and another MHA charged, as Noel continued to hammer his head against the wall, blood streaming down his forehead.

The unnamed one grabbed Noel's arm to restrain him.

And he whirled off the wall, switching the angle and momentum of the attempted arm lock before he yanked and twisted, hurling the MHA to the ground in a judo throw.

"Sorry." Noel said quietly, as Elijah came for him, trying to get his wrists. Noel dodged around him, his hand blurring out and seizing the MHA's belt, insanely fast fingerwork undoing it and yanking it free before the orderly knew what had happened, his pants falling to his ankles as Noel pulled the belt free. Elijah, finding his ankles entangled, stumbled forward…as Noel lashed out, wrapping the belt around his legs and quickly slipping the loop through the belt buckle, snapping the belt closed on his legs and causing him to tumble over.

"Sorry." Noel said again, as the first orderly got up and charged at Noel again.

He should have been more cautious, as Noel slipped around him again and lashed out with a chop, impacting the back of the orderly's neck and short-circuiting his nervous system briefly, as he collapsed, dazed. By now, the nurses had called for security in a panic, and alarms had started going off.

"Sorry…" Noel said, as he put his hands to his face, his fingers digging into his forehead and upper cheeks and drawing fresh blood that ran down his face and hands. "I'm so sorry…so sorry…so sorry…so sorry…"

**After reviewing the recording, I believe that the main antagonist in Mr. Oz's life is his father. He believes his father is manipulating his life and every choice he makes, and then is enraged at himself that he enjoys what those choices bring. I'm considering a treatment in redirection; if I can convince him that he chooses according to a different rationale than his father intends, then it's not control and he is fr**

"DOC WE GOT A PROBLEM!" An orderly yelled as Dr. Sidlakus jerked up from his work. "Your patient is losing it in the common room!"

Alarm crossed the old physician's features, and he got up and left the room, following the sprinting orderly.

* * *

Security and new orderlies began streaming in, as Noel took his hands away from his face, looking at the blood. 

"…oh great, she fell into the same pit trap and now I'm a cutter. Talk about character derailment. Crawling in my skinnnnnnn…" Noel muttered.

And then he was overwhelmed.

* * *

When Dr. Sidlakus finally found Noel again, he was in the infirmary, restrained and mildly sedated, as a nurse cleaned the cuts on his face. 

"What happened?"

"As far as I can tell, he just went bonkers in the common room, started banging his head on the wall and clawing at his face. Took down a few more orderlies too." The nurse said, as she dabbed the wounds with disinfectant.

"Is he conscious?"

"A touch slow but more alert then a fair bit of the patients I get in here. The sedative didn't seem to do much. But he's been calm." The nurse said.

"…give us a moment." Dr. Sidlakus asked. The nurse nodded and left. Dr. Sidlakus took her place and her job.

"Do you want to talk or would you rather just rest now?"

"…had to…not a hero…I was weak…weak…pain is weakness leaving the body…pain is weakness leaving the body…" Noel said with remarkably little slurring.

"Who told you you had to be a hero?"

"I did…and I failed. Only way…to escape him…never escaped him…need to suffer. What I deserve. Only thing. Burn it out. Burn like the fires in his eyes." Noel said. "…I'm sorry for these orderlies. They were innocent. But my pain…is my own. Should have…abused skill even more…no wonder the Shimmer left…I'm so sorry…so tired…sleep now…" Noel said, as he closed his eyes.

Dr. Sidlakus sighed, summoning the nurse back over as he got up and left. It did not take him long to find Elijah Morrison.

"Just what happened?"

"Well, he was sitting there, and Cindy came over, she was happy over some incident yesterday Mr. Oz had a hand in, she said he was a hero…and Mr. Oz snapped and started pounding his head on the wall. But the really weird thing is when we went to stop him…well sir, he then turned into James Bond."

"Interesting. Could anything else have happened to agitate him or set him off?"

"I asked Cindy, she swear she was telling the truth: she was complimenting him and he went nuts. And yet…he was able to disable Mack and myself with minimal effort despite being in a psychotic break. It was insane…well, you know what I mean Doctor. It was like Jet Li. But unlike Tyler and Alphonse…well he didn't hurt us. Well Mack's neck is a touch sore, but it was nothing like the first time. More like…he just didn't want any interruptions to his self-harm."

Dr. Sidlakus sighed. He found he was doing that a lot.

"I'll have to keep him here until I'm sure he won't try something like that again. If there's a change in his behavior or his condition, have the doctor contact me immediately."

"Yes sir…Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Who IS he? I know I have all these papers signed but…what the Christ, you know?"

"I'm considering asking the superintendent for the files after an incident like this. But treat him no different than the others. That's what agitates him."

"All right doc. Really…I mean…ugh." Elijah said and headed over to his 'watcher's desk'.

Dr. Sidlakus had his own work to do. For one, he needed to redefine a few things.

* * *

**I had been called away to the common room. Apparently, another patient had called Mr. Oz a hero (possibly for his confrontation yesterday) and Mr. Oz had reacted by banging his head against the wall repeatedly and clawing at his face. The orderlies attempted to stop him, but he fought back, rather well too, until they outnumbered him and he stopped trying. By the time I arrived, he was already taken to the infirmary and being treated for his wounds. He spoke very little, but he was clear that he did not like being called a hero because he feels he doesn't deserve it. **

**Unfortunately, while this doesn't change the goals of my treatment, it will make it more difficult. Mr. Oz still trusts me, but I need to make him trust his own judgment now.**

**I fear medication may be necessary, but unless he approves, I won't prescribe anything. I must speak with the superintendent; I fear he may be losing his lucidity.**

* * *

Some time passed. 

Noel remained in the infirmary, restrained except when he was eating, using the facilities, or cleaning himself, and watched at all times by MHA's, despite his occasional efforts to request privacy. The MHA's refused, indicating that Noel was basically on suicide watch. When Noel informed them he wouldn't be committing suicide any time soon, they told him they still had their jobs to do as ordered. Mostly, he remained quiet and distant, his mind ever at work at something, even if it was its own further destruction.

So when the order finally came down that he was being released, Noel was relieved: being tied up and watched all the time sucked. At least he hadn't been drugged.

His relief kept him from noticing something was wrong later then he normally was, as he was escorted down the hallway by the usual two MHA's, a pair Noel didn't happen to know. It was nighttime, and lights out for a good part of the hospital, leaving a lot of the hallways dark and shadowy.

"Uh guys, we're going the wrong way." Noel said. "I'm pretty sure my room isn't down this way."

"We know, but a doc requested to see you. It was last minute." One of them said.

"…who." Noel said quietly.

"Doctor Phale."

Noel stiffened.

"…he's a recent arrival, isn't he. What does he treat?"

"I don't know yet. I'm not sure if he has any patients assigned to him."

Noel's face grew dark.

"You might want to have your tranquilizers ready. There's a chance this will not go well." Noel said quietly.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing." Noel said. "…Outside in the distance a wild cat did growl, two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl."

"That a quote from something?"

"Dylan. Quote. Reality. Past. Future…" Noel said, and trailed off with a sigh.

"Well, we're here." The MHA said, as he knocked on the door.

"Enter."

You can tell a lot by a man by how he surrounds himself, and even if Noel had not yet met Dr. Phale, he would have immediately been put on alert upon entering his office. In stark contrast to Dr. Sidlakus', Phale's was organized and neat to TOO great a degree, everything made rigid-looking as a result. There were only chairs in the room, each with a high backing, around a very expensive looking desk the tall doctor sat behind, looking at Noel as he was brought in.

Noel tried to keep his expression neutral: he wasn't in the mood for more nonsense or more time spent being restrained, as he sat down in the nearest chair without waiting for an offer.

"Wait outside please, orderlies. I'd prefer this conversation be private." Dr. Phale said. The orderlies nodded and left the room, leaving Noel alone with the perhaps not so good doctor. The white-haired boy leaned back against the chair and brought his hands together, rolling his fingers so the tops repeatedly tapped together.

"So. I hear you're doing better after resting those few days." Dr. Phale said.

"I am. What is your specialty, doctor?" Noel abruptly asked.

"My specialty? Criminology. I transferred here from a state hospital."

"Why?"

"There are more opportunities at this asylum."

"Oh I see. Perhaps there are." Noel said. "What does the school of criminology entail, doctor?"

"I used to treat mentally ill criminals. My purpose here is to treat the more violent patients due to my experience. And why are you here, may I ask?"

"I lost my way…or maybe found it and found it hard."

"Found it was too much to handle?"

"We're not at the letters page yet." Noel said.

"The letters page?"

"Precisely."

"So then why would you commit such a self-destructive act?" Dr. Phale asked.

"You ever heard a joke so funny you were helpless with laughter?" Noel asked.

"No."

"Stop the presses." Noel muttered. "Well, don't think words and timing can just produce laughter."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"That's the way it often goes." Noel replied.

"So is any knowledge vital to your diagnosis dismissed that way as well?"

"You tell me."

"How convenient."

"Maybe. Perhaps it's funny. Perhaps it's tragic. I just know it's not a Law and Order episode, everything wrapped up in 44 minutes. Barring the occasional two-parter, of course."

"Even fictional stories have their coincidences, but you seem to enjoy more then most."

"I'm blessed that way. Do you have a point doctor?" Noel asked, crossing his arms.

"Do you have a reason for being so hostile?"

"The fact you don't know indicates you don't deserve to know."

"Likewise."

"Do you believe me to be a criminal, Dr. Phale? Is that why I'm here?"

"If I was to treat criminals, I would still be at a state hospital."

"So what are we doing here?"

"I told you, I'm here to treat violent patients. The Superintendent decided that, while I have to specify patients for more in depth treatment, I am to oversee all cases with violent patients. You, due to your recent outbursts, are now one of them."

"Then why do I get a distinct lack of 'revolving door', as if instead of a long line of personal interviews, I am the only patient to see this office?" Noel asked.

"Unlike the others, you seem to have a distinct control over your violent temper, so I doubt I have much to fear from you. Other patients I oversee must remain in their rooms or designated areas. Besides, if you were to harm me, with that knowledge of your self-control, I could easily change your treatment and primary doctor to suit your newfound temper."

Silence.

"…either way, I don't think you're that much of a threat. Do you disagree? Should I consider you a threat?"

Despite himself, Noel smirked bitterly.

"You have no idea or chance of helping me. You'd be much better off if you focused your attention and effort on other patients."

"Other patients that I treat are just as difficult, just in their own manner. I've had few failures in my career, but they tended to be the actors among the unwell."

"…Ahhhhhhhhh…I see what your judgment has wrought." Noel said. "What a pity your experiences defined your view of the world rather then refined it."

"My experiences are quite extensive. As for judgment, do you think I should be casting judgment on you? After all, this is the first of many sessions I have planned. I'd be disappointed if this was all you had to offer."

"…..doctor. I've lost my mind. I have not lost my capacity to think. And to recognize." Noel said, as he got up. "I have worlds to offer. But not to you."

And Noel turned and headed for the door.

"We'll see, Mr. Oz." Dr. Phale said, as he buzzed the MHA's to take him back.

Strangely, they did not come, as Noel opened the unlocked office door himself.

"Wait for the MHA's. They're supposed to escort you."

Noel ignored the doctor, heading out the door and into the hallway.

"Orderlies! He's out there! Orderlies?" Dr. Phale called, his brow furrowed as he got no answer. He picked up the radio the security and orderlies used that had been provided to him and keyed it up. "Attention! Where are the orderlies in Ward 3, we have an unescorted patient in the halls! Hello! Hello! Is anyone there?"

"Doc? Oh man, big problem doc!" A voice crackled on the other end. "There was some error and that Rebecca loon has escaped, she broke into another ward and attacked a patient! And in the chaos, some crazy pyromaniac bitch also escaped and set the kitchen on fire! We're all down in the lower right end of the building trying to get it under control!"

"What ward are they in now?"

"The patients or the staff?"

"The patients!"

"Uh let's see…"

"LOOK OUT SHE'S…!" Came a yell, and the radio abruptly cut out.

"Oh dear." Dr. Phale said, as he got up and headed for the door. "Mr. Oz despite our disagreements it would be best…!"

But when Dr. Phale went through the door, he found the hallway empty. Noel had moved on. Normally, Dr. Phale would have looked for him, but the possibility of an angry, psychotic patient stalking the hallways without any help currently available was something that didn't appeal to him, like any smart person. So instead, he headed back into his office and locked the door, picking up the radio on the desk.

"To anyone who can hear me and spare the attention, we have an unescorted patient in Ward 3, it's quite possible he's heading for his room in Ward 2, any danger he may present is unknown but he is unescorted…"

* * *

Noel didn't really know where he was, but he could read room numbers well enough, even with how dark the hallways were (shouldn't there have been more emergency lights?), so he figured it would only be a matter of time before he found his room. Of course, if it was locked, he was going to be stuck outside it, which would make him look pretty foolish overall for walking off, but he wasn't going to stay around with Dr. Phale, and if the MHA's couldn't be bothered to hang around, he couldn't be bothered to wait for them. 

The moonlight shone in through a window as Noel walked past it, checking a door number as he did so…

Which let him see the shadow flash across the dim glow that was placed on the door.

Which gave him enough indication to turn around as the weighted club swung out and impacted across the left side of Noel's forehead, stars exploding in his vision as he tumbled to the ground. Maybe it might have been better if he HADN'T seen it coming.

"You fucking asshole!" Tyler Armand snarled, as he brutally kicked Noel in the ribs, knocking the air out of him, even as his partner Alphonse Lane moved around Noel to cut off any escape and bring his own club down on Noel's side as he tried to recover, knocking him to the ground. The two orderlies had not been fired as Noel had requested, but their suspensions without pay (which had ended yesterday) and the fact the staff were still investigating Noel's claims (which meant they hadn't decided he was fully at fault) had been enough to drive them to irrational hatred.

Irrational enough that they'd purposely caused the 'error' that had resulted in the psychotic Rebecca being freed, under the assumption the staff was too well prepared and experienced to be harmed by her, and anyone else, who cared?

But not irrational enough that they neglected to do something like keep an ear on their radios. Which is how they'd found Noel, and had ultimately pulled the trigger on their plan of revenge against the patient: he was alone, in a dark hallway, with everyone else somewhere else at the moment.

And he'd hurt and humiliated them. To men like Tyler and Alphonse, even if things hadn't favored them as well as they had, that was enough.

Men like Tyler and Alphonse never learned the lessons they were supposed to, as they rained down club blows on Noel's thrashing form, blood splattering on the floor and walls before a good blow to Noel's head left him stunned on the ground.

"Get him up! Get the fucker up!" Tyler snarled, as Alphonse wrestled Noel's dead weight up. "This is WHAT!" Tyler yelled, punching Noel in the stomach as hard as he could. "YOU GET!" Another punch, to the ribs. "FOR FUCKING WITH US, LOONY!" Repeated blows slammed into Noel's face, before Tyler picked up the club he'd stolen from a locked storeroom (such weapons were just about phased out in asylums, but the Edge City hospital still had a few at the front desk and backups in storage) and smashed Noel across the face with it again, knocking him down to the floor with a spray of blood.

Tyler and Alphonse stomped on him several more times before they finally grew tired, as the two stopped to catch their breath.

"Let's blow this joint. Nighty night shithead." Alphonse said, spitting on Noel's prone, shattered form, as he and Tyler turned to leave…

As Noel's arms lunged out, as he thrust them around Tyler's right and Alphonse's left ankle, respectively, locking them between his elbows in a death grip.

"WHAT THE FUCK! LEGGO!" Tyler yelled, as he brought his club down on Noel's body. But Noel would not relinquish his death grip, even as Alphonse struck himself, banging Noel on the back of his head.

Anger gave way to panic as Tyler and Alphonse rained down a new assault of blows on Noel's arms, head, and body, and even accounting for the fact that Noel's hold on them screwed up their leverage somewhat, they were still landing solid, vicious strikes. But Noel would not let go, as the two orderlies began to freak out and scream. Why couldn't he be knocked out? Why couldn't his arms be broken? Why couldn't they crack his skull or his spine and get him to release them, as they dragged him down the hallway, screaming and hammering him.

Which is how the security found them, drawn by the noise of the two orderlies, having come running after subduing the two escaped patients with the idea that another had gotten free to cause trouble. Instead, they found two workers who seemed quite intent to beat a patient to death, even though he WAS holding onto them.

That didn't much register on the security though, as they quickly swarmed on the two orderlies, taking their clubs away and restraining them, even as another MHA tried to break Noel's deathgrip on their legs…

Which happened almost immediately, as Noel let go, becoming a limp, bloody mess on the ground.

"…he jumped us! We had to defend ourselves! He was going to kill us!" Tyler yelled in protestation.

"Even so…" Said Dr. Hastings, who had appeared shortly after the security had broken the 'fight' up. "Why do you have weapons, Mr.'s Armand and Lane? More importantly, why do you have weapons we only keep in the front desk, where you have never been assigned?"

The two orderlies looked hopelessly at the doctor, who gave them a deep glare in response.

And Noel coughed on the ground, his whole body in agony…but in the end, unbowed.

* * *

Dr. Sidlakus found him forty minutes later, having just heard of the incident due to the chaos of the previous two patient escapes. Noel was back in the infirmary, and while he wasn't restrained this time, he might as well have been with the amount of bandages the nurses were putting on him. His face was a swollen, blackening mess, although his eye sockets seemed only lightly (and remarkably so) bruised, which let him actually see Dr. Sidlakus as a nurse moved out of his line of view. 

"…I told you you should have fired those two." He said quietly.

"It wasn't my call, but I did ask for them to be fired before this happened. The superintendent had reassigned them to another ward on a last chance after their suspension, but he didn't expect this." Dr. Sidlakus said. "They are fired now though, and the superintendent plans to file civil and criminal charges against them."

"And if they'd left me dead in that hallway and slipped away?" Noel asked.

"Considering that the evidence that they came to work, were nowhere to be found while the incident happened, and that they had a grudge against you, they would be tried for murder and probably executed after a while. But that didn't happen, which surprises the lot of us. Your injuries aren't as severe as one would expect; you're either very lucky or very blessed to have come out of that alive, let alone without a body cast. How are you feeling?"

"We gave him some morphine." One of the nurses said.

"That's good, but how are you feeling, Mr. Oz?"

"…I've had worse then this." Noel said as he closed his eyes. "In a certain way, it's a blessing. Pain is oddly…clarifying."

"Why's that?"

"…there are some things…that occur to me…doctor, if there is some abrupt complication, you have my permission to read my files…and I ask you a favor. In the superintendent's office, there is a chest no key can open. Should I die…take it and find the biggest furnace you can. And burn what's inside. My trace…I don't have a lot of hope for it."

"You aren't going to die, Alex. And I'm not just being kind; the physicians found no internal bleeding, only minor bone fractures, and no organ damage. It may not feel wonderful, but you'll be just fine in about a week when all the swelling and bruises fade."

"…Doctor Sid…the murk is descending…I have just a moment…a hand slinks here. A dark burning visage…but it is NOT OF THE ONES I FELLED…it twists my…" Noel said as he trailed off, his eyes growing duller. "Pain…it is my path. This pain…what does it mean?"

"Alex?"

"I don't think I want to leave my room any more. Every step a snare, every word a trigger, every beam of light a reminder of all I failed in."

"That won't help you Alex. Memory doesn't just go away, even if we bury it."

"…was it a test?"

"What?"

"Nothing…I still wish you'd fired those guys Dr. Sid. Obvious reasons aside." Noel said. "And I'm up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching, I should be drinking a toast to absent friends…instead of these comedians."

And then Noel closed his eyes and dozed off.

"…hmmm. Miss Matthews, where is the physician in charge? I need to make sure Mr. Oz is watched while he recovers: I don't think he'll be self destructive like before, but better to be safe than sorry."

"I believe its Dr. Walker. I think he briefly left to get something from his office."

"I'll go to him then." Dr. Sidlakus said, as he headed out of the infirmary, leaving Noel with the nurses.

Dr. Sidlakus had a good reason for wanting to speak to the physician in charge: not only did he want more in-depth report on Noel's injuries, but he also wanted to know what Noel was doing unescorted after lights out in the wrong ward.

Yet, despite talking to Dr. Walker and several orderlies (who still quite hadn't recovered from the crazy events of that night, and hence may not have had the best recollection), Dr. Sidlakus found no answers to his question that night.

* * *

_The Internet._

_Back in the 60's, the Department of Defense laid the concrete for what would become the global village. There's nothing concrete about it though. Oh sure, everything else became slow and cumbersome. Messages were sent in electronic signals, chat rooms brought thousands of strangers together in seconds, and at your fingertips lay a seemingly endless stream of food, entertainment, product, and sustenance._

_A place where those who were alike could all come together, where no matter how off or strange or sick or bizarre your opinion was, one could find someone to listen to._

_Yet isn't it strange…_

_How studies show…_

_That the more time people spend in this virtual world with all their fellows…_

_The more isolated they become?_

* * *

**Entry for Patient No 2522, Alexander Oz**

**July 11****th****, 200X**

**From Dr. Luke Sidlakus**

**Another incident has occurred. Earlier tonight, two patients escaped from their rooms and wreaked havoc. One other patient was injured, as were a few MHA's, but they were detained soon enough. However, the two orderlies that had had a confrontation with Mr. Oz a few days ago used the opportunity to attack him with clubs from the main security desk. They had just returned from suspension for antagonizing him before, so they apparently felt entitled to revenge. Somehow he is remarkably uninjured compared to how brutally they beat him, but he will still be in the infirmary for a few days. He is heavily bruised, has several minor fractures, and possibly has a concussion. The two were immediately arrested and will be sued for damages. **

**Mr. Oz's state of mind is difficult to pinpoint. His disorientation may be due to head trauma, but he seems more depressed. He gave me permission to see his files should something happen to him, and he wants me to destroy the contents of a chest he left in the superintendent's care if he dies. I attempted to explain that he was not dying, despite his pain, but he mentioned seeing a "dark, burning visage" while in the infirmary. It's difficult to interpret the meaning of his hallucination; hopefully I can question him when he recovers. **

**What surprised me most about the incident is that Mr. Oz did not fight back. The two orderlies that attacked him had no injuries or marks of any sort of struggle. The only act he committed was to cling to their legs. It's difficult to say if he did not attack them because of his own choice or because he was caught off guard. **

**I've already developed questions for him since his last visit to the infirmary, and I've already noted the newer topics, so now I simply have to wait for him to recover. I will plead my case to the superintendent for the files, but I have little faith that I will gain access. **

**I fear that if Mr. Oz does not benefit from my treatment, his stay here may do more harm than good with all these terrible occurrences.**

* * *

In the poem 'For The Want Of A Nail', an improperly shoed horse sets in motion a chain of events that brings down a kingdom. In a way, the events of the next day had been set in motion ever since Tyler and Alphonse had first crossed the doorway into Room 13, a room that was definitely proving to be an ill omen. 

"Thank you all for coming. I have called you here due to the events of yesterday, which as far as I can tell, is far from normal at this hospital. As I have been brought here to specifically treat violent patients, I have decided to announce a few proposed changes that will be voted on later. I will be as brief as possible." Dr. Phale said to the gathered security, MHA's, doctors, and nurses. "First off, there is the consideration of…"

Dr. Phale did mean well, and yesterday had been a bad day. But in his reaction to the events, Dr. Phale had called an extensive meeting of the staff of the mental hospital, leaving just a skeleton crew to oversee things, as he performed his meeting in a large office that was rather far away from the wards and common rooms.

But that was all right: any potential troublemakers had been tranquilized beforehand, and there were still a few orderlies around in case of trouble, not to mention a nurse or two. With the fact that only the calmer people were allowed in common rooms at the hour of that afternoon, there should have been no problem.

And there wouldn't have.

Normally.

But not today.

His name was Dutch 'Vicious' Valentine (well, that was his name now, it had once been the far less impressive 'Duane Valenstein'), and he was a professional football player, currently playing for the Star City Steelclaws. A transplanted resident of the deep south when he was 10, Dutch's puberty had seen him grow massively into a hulking mass of muscle: football had been the obvious choice for such a large man and Dutch had smashed his way through high school, college, and into the professional leagues as a defensive and offensive tackle with a nasty temper. He'd been playing in the pros for about five years, three of them for the Steelclaws, and the past two years had gone well for the team, with whispers that with luck, a Super Bowl ring might be theirs this year or sometime soon. Unfortunately, the amount of fame that being a professional athlete on a winning team was usually inverse to how well the person could handle it, and Valentine fell under that category, due to the usual 'work hard, play harder' mindset many professional athletes adopted as well as the fact that he really wasn't the greatest human being to begin with (he was nicknamed 'Vicious' for a reason, and had been the victim of more then a few penalty flags). The usual problems with drugs and reckless behavior had followed, with Valentine catching several misdemeanors over the past 18 months.

Unfortunately, last night it had finally gone over the edge, as the Steelclaws were in town to play the Edge City Scimitars. Valentine had gone out, like many of his fellows, to party. What he alone had done was smoke or snorted something that had apparently been laced with PCP.

PCP, aka phencyclidine, more commonly known as Angel Dust, was a psychotropic drug that had originally been conceived of as an anesthetic before its side effects caused it to be shelved. It had various drastic effects on the nervous system, including hallucinations, and in more then a few cases had been demonstrated, by itself or in combination with other drugs, to drive its users into a psychotic, uncontrollable state made worse by the fact that the drug did retain some of its anesthetic properties, resulting in the user feeling less pain at the time, hence removing certain limits that most humans operated under. PCP had been known to turn small, weak people into raging maniacs that several people could not restrain.

In the system of someone like Dutch Valentine, the term 'recipe for disaster' didn't even begin to cover it. Dutch had gone on a tear that had nearly resulted in him bringing down the whole nightclub with his bare hands, as well as injuring various bouncers, police officers, some of his own teammates, and more then a few bystanders. He had finally been restrained long enough for the drug to wear off, which had caused the athlete to crash terribly as the flood of chemicals to his brain was cut off, almost putting him in a stupor.

If he'd been anyone else, he probably would have ended up in a jail cell. But he was a CELEBRITY, and hence was entitled to special treatment.

Though to be fair, there was probably some intelligence behind the choice. There was no guarantee the drug was done, and it would probably be best to have the large, violent man in a padded cell where he couldn't hurt himself or others. Not to mention he might be in danger by being in jail, even if it was just from the media. Plus, his agent had claimed he'd long suspected that his client had a disorder of somethingorother: perhaps he was lying, but perhaps he wasn't.

And so things had been arranged so that Dutch Valentine found himself quietly being brought to and into the Edge City Asylum that day for a few days' observation and treatment to decide how to best handle the whole mess.

With some difficulty, as the aforementioned crash seemed to have completely wiped Valentine out. He was upright and moving somewhat on his own, but he clearly needed the help of the two orderlies to actually go anywhere, as he was escorted in, his head slumped down and his feet dragging. Two long strands of artificial braided hair hung down over his head: one of the things Valentine liked to do, when he was in a better mood, was poke fun at the concept that because he was a southerner he had to be a racist (he wasn't), and one of his antics recently had been to 'prove' dreadlocks would look as good on him as they would on a black man. Not having the patience to grow his blonde hair out from the short cut he currently had, Valentine had simply gotten professional hair extensions. Whether the fake dreads had looked good on him or not was a matter of personal opinion: virtually all the extensions were gone, lost in the chaos of Valentine's drugged frenzy. The nurse on duty watched the sole survivors wave back and forth as the orderlies brought him to the front desk.

"Patient delivery. Number's 4419. Who's the attending physician we need to deliver this guy to?" The orderly on the left asked.

"Uh…um…what the? Damn it, the head nurse must have taken those files to consult again. Geezus, she has a memory like a sieve!" The nurse at the desk complained.

"Oh great. Now what do we do with tall, dark, and drooling here?" The orderly on Valentine's right complained.

"Best take him to Ward 6 and get him settled, just in case. That's across the building though: go down the left hallway, hang a left, then go in the forth door to the right, then go right once you reach the bottom of the stairs, and then one more left. Just pay attention and you should get there all right."

"Yeah yeah…" Orderly 1 (the one on the left of Valentine) said as he grudgingly began escorting the football player's large, resistant form along with his fellow, heading across the building to Ward 6.

As you might have guessed, the two MHA's hadn't retained the directions as well as they claimed.

"Weren't we supposed to go right at these stairs?"

"No, it was the next door."

"No, I was certain we went right…!"

A few more exchanges like this quickly led to the inevitable: the pair were lost.

"Okay, fine, let's find some staff and get a guide or something…geez, what's going on, where is everybody…" Orderly 2 said as they continued down the hallways, which were as empty as ever.

* * *

Noel was sitting on his bed in the infirmary, leaning against the wall with a few cushions propped against his back, trying to find a comfortable position when the MHA opened the door, Noel blinking his eyes open at the sound. 

"Hey! There any staff in here?" The MHA asked Noel, hoping the patient had enough brainpower to give SOME kind of an answer.

"Uh…there was…the nurse who was here, I think she went to the common room down the hall for a moment." Noel said.

"Obliged. Come on, we should find someone down the hall." Orderly 1 said as he closed the door and Noel reclined back against the wall, his body aching all over.

The MHA's continued down the hallway, taking their escort with them: he'd said and done nothing during the whole trip.

Maybe that should have served as a warning.

"Whoa!" Cindy said as the orderlies brought Valentine into the common room, as she looked at his massive form and exaggeratedly licked her lips. "I volunteer to let him stay in my room!"

"Keep it down Jess." Elijah Morrison said, addressing Cindy by her last name. With virtually all staff called away at the meeting, he had to be careful to keep things under control in the common room, though at the time the patients in it were all pretty much considered harmless (even Cindy was mostly bark and she tended to direct her bite at more overtly annoying things)

"Awwwwwwwwwwww." Cindy complained, but she settled down as asked, as Orderly 2 went up to the nursing station and tapped on the window to get the nurse's attention.

As Cindy, sitting and playing solitaire, happened to glance up again…as she saw Valentine's head snap up and his body go as taunt as a wire.

For you see, whatever Dutch Valentine had ingested last night, it had not been laced with PCP. Or to be specific, classic PCP.

What Dutch had ingested was an immensely dangerous new PCP variant/cocktail that had been dubbed 'Loop', which took advantage of the fact that PCP took a long time to break down in the body. Unlike PCP, which generally only had one period of intense effect, Loop used certain chemical markers to cause the usual effects the drug had, followed by a sudden and severe crash that could induce full blown catatonia in certain victims, a state which lasted anywhere from 12 to 18 hours…at which point the drug reactivated at an even worse level of potency via some chemical 'magic tricks', hence causing a 'loop' of the effects. The second period did not last very long, but that was beside the point: whoever had designed and spread the drug clearly indicated it to do harm, as people assumed the drug had worn off and did not properly restrain its users half the time.

And Dutch, having been so out of it, was not in a straightjacket. He wasn't even handcuffed.

And even if he had been, it might not have made a single bit of difference, as the first orderly reacted to the sudden, furious tension that rippled across Valentine's body by turning towards him…as Valentine bellowed in pure animal fury and lashed out with his arm, smashing it across the orderly's chest and sending him flying several feet before he crashed down to the floor.

"HOLY…!" Elijah yelled as Valentine smashed aside the orderly, who was a fair sized man himself, like he was a toy doll, even as the second orderly whirled around…and Valentine seized a nearby chair and hurled it across the room, causing it to shatter against the far wall and causing a ripple of screams to erupt from the room as the patients began to panic.

"Holy shit! Who pissed in his cornflakes!?!" Cindy yelled, as Elijah sprang up, even as the first orderly tried to restrain Dutch Valentine and the nurse hit the alarm, which began sounding throughout the floors.

"What the blazes?" Dr. Phale said as he looked up from his notes: he was just about done and now…there was trouble. With pretty much every staff member in this room. SHIT!

And in the infirmary, Noel blinked his eyes open.

"Stay clear Cindy!" Elijah yelled as he charged across the room…as Valentine effortlessly threw the orderly off of him and suddenly charged, barreling into Elijah and smashing him to the floor, knocking the wind out of him as he fell down on top of him. Whatever Dutch was hallucinating he was seeing, he couldn't express it in words, his voice a mindless howl as he smashed his fists down on Elijah's head, knocking him senseless despite the MHA managing a partial guard with his forearms. Valentine raised said arms to strike again, before the first orderly jumped him, trying to restrain him from behind as the nurse rushed in with a needle filled with lorazepam, a powerful tranquilizer.

And the common room patients continued to scream, fueled by the noise and Valentine's inhuman howls.

As Noel opened the infirmary door and looked out, drawn by the racket and the alarm, and more specifically, the screaming. It sounded like a torture chamber, and in a way it was: exposed to unexpected and unprotected stimuli, the patients in the common room were very well being tortured by their illnesses.

"What the hell is going on? SECURITY! WE HAVE A PROBLEM! SECURITY!" Noel yelled down the hallway. But no one came to his call.

As Valentine lashed out, striking the nurse with his arm and sending the small woman flying as she crashed to the floor, the syringe of tranquilizer shattering as Valentine reached behind himself and seized the orderly trying to control him, and even as he got up he hurled him, partially over his shoulder and partially around his body, his overlarge muscles exploding with adrenaline, as the orderly sailed through the air and slammed into the wall by the door with a sickening crack before tumbling limply to the ground.

A sight that made Noel's eyes widen.

"What the hell…"

"Oh shit." Cindy said, her own eyes wide as Valentine turned towards the screaming patients, the noise like stinging insects in his head, most of the patients unaware of the fact they were angering an out of control giant. Cindy knew though, and turned and ran, heading for the nearest door.

Only to find out the hard way another downside of having such a low head count for staff: to ensure no patients ran away, Elijah had locked two of the three entrances out of the room, the only open one being the way Dutch and his escorts had come in, and the football player was between that one and the patients. Cindy found herself locked in, hammering on the reinforced door.

"Oh shit! HELP! HELP!" Cindy screamed, as Valentine stalked towards the patients…and the first orderly leapt on him again, having finally gotten up from the terrible blow Valentine had dealt him. The pair wrestled and struggled for several seconds…before Valentine managed to dump the orderly on the ground and kick him as hard as he could, shattering several ribs and sending the orderly flying up into the air and down on the card table, shattering it as the patients screamed even louder, some trying to retreat like Cindy, others trying to hide, and others lost in their own diseased minds.

"…security…" Noel said, as he looked down the hallway and then helplessly back to the room. No one was coming…

…no one could help.

…right?

…no.

As Noel stared for another second…and then slipped back into the infirmary, trembling violently.

The door swung shut…

And then slammed open as Noel re-emerged, carrying a chair that he swung up and smashed into the glass window of a fire prevention case in the hallway. No one else was coming. So be it.

Cindy, finally realizing the door wasn't going to open, whirled around as Valentine stalked towards the noisy annoyances, his eyes burning like someone had lit a fire in his head, a streak of bloody drool running from his mouth, as he reached out for the nearest patient…

"HEY ASSHOLE!"

Something slammed into Valentine's back, and he whirled around with a snarl…

As Noel blasted the fire extinguisher in his face, the acrid powder spraying into Valentine's eyes, nose, and mouth and causing him to recoiling and stumble around, screaming and hacking as his face burned, as he staggered away from the patients and Noel tossed down the extinguisher and picked up the axe he had liberated from the fire case. He'd removed the actual axe head, but the end of the bare wood rod still made a very effective club.

"If he comes near them again, use that!" Noel yelled as Cindy, and charged, swinging the club he'd made out and slamming it into Valentine's gut. Valentine didn't even blink, but he was still blind and hence could only lunge in Noel's rough direction, which Noel dodged around, swinging up the club and slamming repeated, vicious blows with everything he had down on Valentine's back. Valentine lunged at Noel again, but Noel dodged once more and slammed the club against the side of Valentine's knee, causing him to fall to the ground on the other, as Noel smashed the club across his face and then did so again in the other direction, blood spraying from the wound.

Valentine blinked, and then he lunged forward and crashed into Noel, sending them tumbling across the floor. Noel squirmed free and sprang up, ramming the club end first into Valentine's chest, and then as the out of control athlete briefly gasped for air Noel stepped back and swung as hard as he could.

Valentine grabbed it this time, and as Noel's eyes widened Valentine swung the weapon in turn, Noel so surprised he didn't let go as Valentine whirled him around and then sent him flying across the room, where Noel crashed into one of the fences covering the windows so hard he shattered the glass, causing the patients to scream anew as he fell to the ground.

Noel hit hard, his whole body in screaming agony, the adrenaline Noel had been feeling finally not matching up the sheer pain he was in after last night's beating at the hands of the two orderlies, not to mention the new pain Valentine had just so graciously given him. Stunned by his agonies, Noel was only vaguely aware of the giant's shadow falling on him…

As the mad football player pounced, hammering and tearing at Noel as he tried to rip him apart, Noel retreating into a fetal position as the terrible blows rained down on him, as Valentine bellowed and snarled, slamming blow after blow on Noel's fallen form.

As he was blasted in the back by the fire extinguisher.

"GET OFF HIM YOU COCKSUCKER!" Cindy screamed, spraying the lunatic once more to ensure she had his attention, as Valentine whirled around and Cindy backed up, spraying at him once more with the fire extinguisher…

As it finally ran dry, konking out before it could re-blind the now recovered in that sense Valentine, as he snarled and went for Cindy. Cindy screamed and tried hurling the red canister at the maniac, but she lacked the strength to do any damage as it bounced off Valentine's front as he went for her, the small girl retreating in a panic…

As he lunged out and grabbed her wrist, the girl screaming as he dragged her towards him…

And Noel slammed the extinguisher into the back of Valentine's head, sending him reeling forward and releasing his grip on Cindy, who fled. Valentine, dazed but not down, turned around…as Noel smashed the length of the canister across his face and sent bloody teeth spraying from Valentine's mouth as he staggered…but stayed up.

"DAMN IT! GO DOWN!" Noel snarled, barely able to stand himself from the way his body was screaming at him, as he charged and tried to ram the end of the extinguisher into Valentine's gut.

Valentine grabbed it in mid ram, thrusting the canister upward and causing Noel to lose his grip as Valentine tossed it aside, as Valentine swung out a fist and smashed Noel across the face, knocking him down.

Valentine tried to pounce once more, but Noel sprang up with unbelievable reflex and returned the punch, ducking and weaving briefly around the athlete's attacks and smashing repeated blows into Valentine's forehead as he tried everything he had left to bring the giant down…

As Valentine broke through his guard with sheer force, clamping his huge fingers around Noel's throat, and as Noel's air was cut off completely, Valentine lifted him right off the ground and then swung down, smashing Noel violently into the floor before hoisting him back up in one smooth motion and spinning around to hurl him through the air with another frenzied roar.

Noel flew into the nurse's station, smashed through the hard plastic barrier between it and the common room like it wasn't there, crashing down and through the room/office as shattered pieces of synthetic glass rained down around him. He did not get back up.

As Valentine turned back to the screaming patients, snarling and stalking towards them, as Cindy retreated, throwing everything she could get her hands on at the unstoppable, out of control monster as he closed in to rip her apart…

She saw a blur of movement.

And then the white sheet was thrown over Valentine's head as Noel ran up behind him, tossed the tightly rolled linen he'd grabbed up from the nurse's office over the football player, and then yanked and bore back as hard as he could, garroting Valentine with the makeshift noose. Valentine's forward momentum was stopped dead, as he went into a frenzy, trying to free himself as Noel himself tried to hold on, as Valentine thrashed around, banging off the walls as Noel tried to keep him away from the patients.

Valentine roared, and something in Noel snapped.

"DAMN IT WHEN I SAY GO DOWN, YOU FUCKING WELL GO DOWN!" Noel said, as he twisted the sheet into an x shape behind Valentine, switched grips with his hands…and then ran forward and leapt, flipping over Valentine and landing right in front of him, almost pressed up against the football player's massive body as he pulled back on the sheet as hard as he could, having now completely wrapped the linen around Valentine's neck as he yanked with all his might, constricting the tight sheet around Valentine's neck as he gagged and lashed out at Noel, punching him in the face and chest, but Noel wouldn't let go, he was in the zone, he would stop this man because no one else could…

"GO. DOWN." Noel hissed through split lips. "You still need to breathe. Your brain still needs blood. You have neither. GO. DOWN."

Valentine hammered and thrashed, but his struggles were weakening, his movements growing sluggish, as Noel cranked back even harder. Valentine fell to one knee, then the other, feebly pawing at Noel…and then his arms went limp, his body leaning against Noel's as it lost the ability to keep itself upright, his face turning an odd shade of dark purple as he jerked, twitched, and then went still.

Noel held the grip for another ten seconds to be sure, and then he released the sheet and pushed Valentine over, the giant football player thudding to the ground like a fallen tree.

The room had gone oddly silent, save for Noel's heavy breathing, as he looked down on the giant with eyes as intense as a star's.

As Cindy came up behind him, patting him on the shoulder as she began to say "Wicked, man…"

As Noel whirled, his mind still in a state of instinctual threat, as he smashed Cindy across the face with a backhand before he realized what he was doing.

The realization came a second later.

"…no." Noel said, as he realized what he had done. "…no…wait…" Noel stammered, as he looked down at Cindy, holding her face in hurt shock, unable to believe that Noel had hit her. "…No! No no! It was an accident! I thought…no…no…" Noel babbled, as Cindy's look pieced right through, that look of betrayal in her current fresh state of pain.

"No…No…nooooooooooooo…" Noel wailed as he backed up, his back thudding against the wall as he slid down and began rocking. "I'm…not the bad guy…I'm not the bad guy…please…don't make me the bad guy…noooooooooooo…"

As Cindy recovered from her brief surprise and pain, as she realized that _had_ been an accident, she'd startled him…and in her inevitable response, she'd perhaps set in motion something that was also inevitable.

For the want of a nail…

All was lost.

* * *

Security arrived roughly twenty seconds later. 

They did manage to be of some use, properly restraining and taking Valentine away for treatment, while others tended to Noel, the injured staff, and the traumatized patients. Others tried to get to get what had happened out of other patients, but in the end only Cindy proved clear enough to talk.

"He protected us." She said, still somewhat dazed. "That fucking lunatic would have killed us all…but he ran in and protected us. He just wouldn't stay down…" Cindy said.

"Excuse me…" Came a voice, as Dr. Phale headed over to the small woman. "How did he stop him?"

"He…he choked him out with a sheet…actually let himself be punched so he could…nothing else worked…" Cindy tried to explain.

"What else did he try?"

"Well…he hit with a stick…and punched him and…what the fuck does this matter? Where the fuck were YOU?" Cindy accused.

"We don't exactly expect a new patient that appears to be drugged to be brought to the common room and suddenly attack the patients while a majority of staff is in a meeting."

Cindy stared at Phale for a moment…and then she reared back and spat on him.

"Fuck you, asshole. Cover your fucking ass. Piece of shit." Cindy hissed, and lapsed into a sullen silence.

Phale sighed and produced a handkerchief from his suit pocket, wiping off Cindy's 'venom' as he turned to a nearby security guard.

"Have the two instigators been taken to the infirmary?"

"Yes doctor. Separate ones, to be safe. We fully restrained the supposed aggressor and the other gave us no trouble."

"Right. Well make sure those who need to fill out incident reports of what happened here, and tell the doctors I need to speak with them as well, they should try and speak with their patients when they've calmed down. Also, I need to speak to Dr. Sidlakus about this. Has anyone seen him?"

* * *

For the third time in a week, Dr. Sidlakus found himself visiting a patient in the infirmary, an event that usually had months of time between them, as he approached the nurses trying to tend to Noel's rocking, tremulous form. 

"He's somewhat unresponsive to treatment doctor. He's not resisting but he won't stop rocking like that. We gave him a mild sedative but it persists." A nurse said.

"Alex? Are you alright?" Dr. Sidlakus asked.

"…not the bad guy…not the bad guy…" Noel whispered, but he was clearly speaking to the air. "Give me a sign…not the bad guy…not the bad guy…"

"Alex, you aren't a bad guy. You just saved a room full of patients." Dr. Sidlakus said, but his words fell on deaf ears. Noel was gone again, lost in the same torments that had consumed him once, and perhaps had taken him for good now.

No good deed goes unpunished.

"….nurses, make sure you treat him as a catatonic when attending to his injuries." Dr. Sidlakus sighed, as he watched all the work he had done float away on the back of several cruel coincidences.

Noel had spoken like he was under the pall of an ill portent. Despite himself, Dr. Sidlakus couldn't help but wonder if that were in some way true.

* * *

**A strange incident occurred today. While I was leading a meeting about the new methods and treatments to be used for the violent patients of Ward Six, a new patient (ironically, being led to Ward Six) was accidentally brought to the common room where he attacked the orderlies and the patients. The physician found a high level of a PCP variant in his system, which is most likely the cause for such a sudden change in his appearance; the orderlies did not restrain him since he had seemed calm and quiet.**

**Stranger still, Mr. Oz came to the rescue of the patients. I find it incredible that he not only could bring down such a wild and strong opponent, but that he did it less than twenty-four hours after being beaten nearly to death by two orderlies. Given his injuries were not lethal, he still suffered from intense pain and weakness even with medication, let alone attempting to move quickly and powerfully enough for a fight. Besides that show of determination, Mr. Oz was also lucid enough to consider strategy while fighting the new patient; he used misdirection, blinded the patient with foam from a fire extinguisher, used the extinguisher to beat the patient back, thought enough to remove the head of an ax from the stem to avoid using lethal force and to protect himself from lethal force if the patient wrestled it from him, and finally used a rolled sheet to strangle the** **patient until he passed out. Even the orderlies, who were trained to handle wild patients regardless of their size or strength, were not able to use such techniques properly. To end the incident, Mr. Oz also struck a female patient by accident before curling up and mumbling about being a villain. **

**After gaining access to his files, I've developed a theory about his behavior and "illness". Mr. Oz does not come across as the typical patient to begin with. Unlike Doctor Sidlakus, who believes he suffers from a dissocative disorder, I suspect that Mr. Oz suffers from ****Munchausen syndrome****. He put himself in danger and courts suffering in order to gain attention and respect. His dissociative episodes seem to begin as self-reproach for losing others' attention or becoming a "bad guy", then he regresses to gain attention once again. While these incidences are in fact coincidences, I believe he uses the opportunities to act up and become a sensation in the asylum instead of another number on a form. He is also calculating, aggressive, and confident when confronted by patients who do not have sympathy for him. This manipulation of other patients and staff will make his treatment very difficult, but still possible.**

**His past only confirms my beliefs. His identity as a "hero" seems more like a cry for attention, and when confronted by the media and slandered, he suddenly disappeared for months, and eventually reappeared here. While his whereabouts are not explained, I have a feeling he began "developing" this illness to eventually act out and become a patient so he could have a stage to perform to without a hint of his true nature since his file was off limits. **

**After his mistake, Mr. Oz dove back into his catatonia to hide out until he's healed and has a chance to redeem himself to the other patients. I will have a few surprises waiting for him when he does. He may be a difficult case, but he will see the truth and accept it, one way or another.**

**-Dr. Phale**

* * *

**Entry for Patient No 2522, Alexander Oz**

**July 20****th****, 200X**

**From Dr. Luke Sidlakus**

**While Dr. Phale was conducting a meeting with most of the doctors and orderlies, a new patient was brought in. The orderlies escorting him to Ward Six got lost, and while asking for directions from a nurse in the common room, the patient suddenly awoke and attacked them in a "blind rage". He is a PCP user, so I can assume a delayed reaction instigated this sudden attack. Mr. Oz heard the commotion down the hall and defended the patients, despite his injuries, and eventually subdued him. Another patient, Miss Jessick, told the orderlies that she tried to congratulate him when he slapped her, possibly still tense from the incident and acting instinctually when she touched him. He immediately apologized for it and broke down, repeating that he did not want to be the "bad guy", most likely due to the extreme stress and physical pain. By the time I visited him in the infirmary, he was mumbling and rocking** **back and forth. I attempted to communicate with him, but he was unresponsive and eventually fell silent, unmoving.**

**Mr. Oz has reverted into a deep state of depersonalization. He's removed himself from reality completely. I doubt he will recover from this fugue as quickly as he had in the others due to the unusual amount of stress, helplessness, and despair he's suffered in the recent incidents. While this instance where he saved the patients should have assured him that he can help people and is not being controlled (since he chose to go beyond his limitations and protect the patients), the fact that he also injured Miss Jessick turned that possibility into an example of his violent nature. It's likely Mr. Oz believed that while he can use that tendency to help people, he is ultimately something dangerous and irresponsible, hence the "bad guy". Despite her good intentions, it may have been better had Miss Jessick never approached Mr. Oz after the fight.**

**The only good that came from the incident is that I was finally given access to Mr. Oz's file. The superintendent realized that he would be very difficult to treat if the information remained out of my hands in light of the situation. I'm somewhat grateful that I can eliminate schizophrenia from the possible illnesses, considering I thought most of those references were delusions or nonsense, but I must also be careful when I approach him with this information. While I'm hopeful that Mr. Oz will recover from this fugue, I can't be certain of the timing or his state of mind if, and when, he does. I may have to completely start his treatment over, rebuild his trust in myself and the staff, then reveal that I know who he is and how that can benefit his treatment. Unfortunately, he could react badly, ashamed that I would know who he is and what's happened to him, which may force him back into his catatonia. However, that must wait until he recovers.**

**His past also helps to clarify his self-perception. In essence, he feels that he cannot fulfill (what he believes to be) his duty as a hero because he was manipulated into performing some awful act, probably by his father. The file contains nothing about what actually triggered his sudden illness, and nothing about his family, so I can only assume it was excluded to protect his legal identity. Sadly, that will make treatment difficult since I must treat him for a breakdown with a cause that is not in the files and will probably not be divulged, by his teammates or himself. **

**What I can deduce is that he most likely became a hero to avoid becoming like his father, but the skills and methods he once used to protect people now remind him of how they are similar. This would explain how he is torn between his duty as a hero and the repulsion of his father's influence on him. I'm sure his father is unaware of his identity as a hero; otherwise he would have made it known or tried to contact him in an effort to manipulate his recovery. I'll have to convince him that his skills are not solely influenced by his father, but by other experiences, especially in his line of work. I must be careful not to miscommunicate that he is immune to his father's influence or that his father influenced his team and work, or else he could become paranoid or overly confident. Hopefully, his lucidity and intelligence will overcome his despair after some of the treatments so he can understand and appreciate the difference.**

**Of course, this plan hinges on the possibility that Mr. Oz may not recover; I'm unsure if he will, but if he does, at least now I know how to treat him and how to interpret his words. **

**If he does not recover, I'm not sure how he will cope with the stress. Dissociative patients often create their own world in their minds in order to replace a reality they cannot** **accept. I suspect that possibility because he seeks acceptance and wants to participate in the world, but only as an independent person, free of his father's influence and genuinely helping people. That desire may lead to this result. Unfortunately, I'll never know until he wakes up from his depersonalized state.**

**Until he does, I'll research possible treatments. If contacting his teammates will aid him, I will, but only as a last resort. I don't want to damage their faith in his recovery; it's unnecessary. I'll have him exposed to other patients in case they can elicit a response that wakes him, but in small doses and distant from each other. He feels he needs to rest from reality for a reason, and I will not attempt to force him back; it would only be detrimental to his mind.**

**It's likely he will remain here for a very long time. I hope that is not the case; if the world can wear down heroes who would defend the helpless so completely, perhaps the world has become too cruel to fix anymore.**

* * *

_What's next?_

_Microchips in the head? Reading each other's minds?_

_I'm sure some people are working on that. Too late. It's been done. By those you would think the least likely to do: a tribe in Australia, living in the still vast and untamed wilderness, managing, just barely, to stay out of the reach of progress._

_They didn't achieve their gift through the next big tool of mankind or whatever shiny new toy a supposed genius thought up. They did it by staying with the original way. The Aboriginal way, you might say._

_They didn't try and find a thousand new ways to talk. They just focused on the first._

_One has to wonder who really is the more civilized._

* * *

"Geez. That's quite a story." The MHA said as he peered through the glass window into the room where the patient they knew as Alexander Oz and we knew as Noel Collins sat on the floor, once again looking down and staring at the ground. 

"Tell me about it." Daniel Owens said, having just finished telling it. "He's our regular superhero…well, if he wasn't so messed up. A real model citizen."

"Hey, you two. You're being paid to watch the patients, not WATCH-watch them." Dr. Hastings said as he popped up. "Any change Daniel?"

"None sir. Sometimes he mumbles to himself like he's addressing somebody or something, but besides that nothing. The nurses and we have to do virtually everything else."

"More's the pity. I do hope he finds his way back." Dr. Hastings said, as he peered in the window as well.

"What do you think he's talking about?" The MHA said.

"Who knows? Maybe he's making it right in his head. Making a world where he never lost himself. Expanding on it from bits and pieces gleaned from what he's seen and heard to prove its reality. Rejecting the truth for being too hard. A world where he never fails, by his own gifts." Dr. Hastings said. "Or maybe he thinks he's talking to God. Hell, there are theories that insanity brings remarkable clarity about certain things. Maybe in his lunacy he's found a higher lucidity. Maybe he actually IS talking to God. Who knows? We just try and treat them. Understanding them is not always possible."

"…yeah."

"…poor bastard."

"Aren't we all." Dr. Hastings said. "Aren't we all. Anyway, it's almost lights out. I'll leave you to your jobs. What did you say your name was?" Dr. Hastings asked the new MHA.

"It's actually Alexander too, like the patient. Alexander Lutter…" The MHA said as the three walked away.

As Noel sat in his room, looking down at himself.

At his hands.

As he raised them briefly.

And, if but for a moment, white energy danced on the palms. The sign of a power that had never left. The sign of the reason why Noel's terrible injuries to his body had not been as severe as expected. And if a trial had been needed to return after Noel's 'sins', his agonies done in the service of helpless innocents had been deemed sufficient.

Noel looked at the dancing power.

And then he looked up further…to look at you. You, the reader.

He can see you.

"Perhaps some day, when man goes mad from his brain picking up all the information in the air, and all the trees have been cut down to make paper for the printing press, leaving us with no oxygen to breath…satellites will overheat and fall from the heavens, as we sent desperate cell phone calls to our loved ones, while watching the last days of Mother Earth on Reality TV. And perhaps the last message to go forth into the ether will be an e-mail, with a simple phrase, easily spoken by anyone: Turn The Lights Out, The Party's Over."

"Lights out." Came a voice from outside Noel's room. "Everyone down." Noel just keeps on looking at you, of many faces and lives, all together in the singular visage of The Reader.

"And then it'll be right back to the way it was. With The Word. Perhaps the last message will be to God, who made us so he'd have someone to chat with. But it will not reach a God willing to talk. Rather…it will reach a God…who is tired of listening."

Noel cocked his head.

"Perhaps much like you are. Good night."

And the room went black.

* * *

_**Next: In Harm's Way!**_


	36. In Harm's Way: No Rest For The Weary

Chapter 37: No Rest For The Weary

Despite all things, tomorrow always came.

Well, except when some lunatic got into the higher end spectrum of temporal manipulation and you suddenly had problems like the sun rising in the west, Joan of Arc becoming the Paris Hilton of her time, and Nietzsche going mad because he couldn't have as many Fritos as he wanted, but I digress.

New days came, leaving behind the old, but not their effect.

As the sun shone down on Jump City and the T-Tower on a peaceful summer day…as the motorcycle drove down the freeway, the helmeted female form on it expertly weaving through slower cars. She might not have brought much attention to herself if but for her outfit, a form fitting dark purple bodysuit with blue gloves and boots, and even then she was there and gone so fast most people only noticed a glimpse of her as she drove on.

As we return to the Tower and, like times beforehand, move through it, through the garage where Cyborg is hard at work at finishing up the final details of the latest T-Car, up through the floor to the main room where Beast Boy and Terra sat playing video games and Robin quietly worked on a laptop nearby, and through a door and down several hallways until we come to the walking form of Gauntlet, as Robert Candide reached the door he was heading for and knocked.

"Come in." Came Starfire's voice, friendly but not as overly enthusiastic as she normally was. That was enough to cause Rob some worry, as he opened Starfire's door and found her sitting on the floor, legs crossed.

"Hey Kory. What are you doing here hiding in your room?" Gauntlet asked.

"Hello Friend Rob. I was just doing one of Raven's meditative ways, to organize my thoughts. Her letter was nice, but I do wish she would return soon. I find that absence of friends is more…common these days." Starfire said.

"…….Oh great, now you're getting darker and edgier too." Rob muttered under his breath.

"What Robert?"

"Nothing." Gauntlet sighed.

"You fear I am losing my cheer." Starfire said with surprising clarity.

"…well yeah! There's a lot of that going around lately! I mean, what's the freaking deal? Mad Mod was just a gag villain for years and what happens? He hits us with the worst thing since the Final Night! And what's the deal with Doctor Light suddenly being a rapist that everyone just conveniently forgot about!?!"

"Doctor Light is a rapist?" Starfire said in confusion.

"Yes! No! Are we up to that concept chronologically yet? Argh, damn this girl and her frack'n frankenfanon! But even if we haven't gotten there yet, it's like the universe is getting all dark and evil and squicky for no other reason than to be dark and evil and squicky! All this darkness…you can't get out of that much darkness without starting completely fresh. Mark my words, it will come back to bite us in the ass! I mean, what the hell was with the last part? That last part was just sad and depressing, not to mention royally self-indulgent! And all that talk of TV and Gutenberg…what was the deal with THAT!?"

"…excuse me Friend Rob?" Starfire said again, looking confused, as Gauntlet looked down.

"Huh, where did this soapbox come from." Gauntlet said, as he stepped down off of it and pushed it aside with his foot.

"…Friend Rob, it is okay. Yes, the last several weeks have been hard for us. But despite what some may say, I am not a shrinking violet, prone to crumple under stress. Yes, they were hurtful, and I have felt it, but I am not dwelling and brooding on it. There is always tomorrow." Starfire said. "…I had a question I thought to pose to you, but perhaps you are not in the right frame of mind for it."

"Oh no no no no no, Star! You're always free to ask." Gauntlet said as he sat down with the alien.

"If so, please get any more worries about supposed changes to my character out of the way first. Use the box of soap if needed."

"No, I think we're done with that for now. Ask away."

"Well, while not thinking about in the dark, obsessive way some of our friends would, I have been giving thought to the events of the past few days. And since you live in a city where there are people like us at every corner and behind every door, I must ask Rob: did you ever learn just why humans like those tend to favor such complicated mental setups?"

"…well, it really doesn't have much to do with being superhuman. It's just…well, it's about benefits, really. If Tamaranians are honest about how they feel, they can wield biological gifts that would fall under our category of superpowers. If you cover up your happiness, you can't fly. But with us humans…it just ended up backwards. If we're too honest, we get shunned and lose our ability to do things. If I don't like somebody's cooking and I tell them I like it, I'm covering up my emotion…but I've just preserved our relationship. It's thinking like that that started it…and then…well…it kinda…got made to do too much work."

"…wait…does that mean you do not really like MY cooking?" Starfire asked.

"Of course not!" Gauntlet blurted. Starfire gave him a look. "Really. Those raw Blacktrinian moon berries were…tart. In a good way."

"Okay!" Starfire said, grinning.

"Moving on. We're just not prone to being that open. It's not too beneficial."

"I have come to understand that. Humans by some genetic factor seem to often possess many contradictory qualities…like how they will band together in certain circumstances but only up to a certain degree, and they will not trust others who have done likewise."

"Yeah, we do like our cliques and our feuds."

"But there's more to it then that. I can understand why the Mad Mod would not like us, and why he would wish to oppose us, even hurt us…but I am just baffled by the…complexity of it. Even if I think of the illnesses of the brain you humans have, I just…why did he want to make us care? Why did he wish to be so…thorough? He would have been as done with us if he'd just attacked us with his machines, rather then…give them souls."

"I can't really say. I understand spite. I know what it feels like to be backed in a corner with no way out. Hell, I felt that way fighting the little droids…"

"They weren't droids." Starfire said with uncommon sad firmness.

"Synthetic beings then. Whatever they were. Anyway, when spite takes over…You hit as hard as you can and as long as you can. You don't care if you win, you just care about making them hurt, about making them know you were there. Maybe that's what Mod was after. Even if we won…we'd lose. We'd know what he did to us and we'd feel it."

"The sad thing is, I doubt he feels satisfied. Even if we had not bested him. It is just something I have observed. Your complicated emotions can make you lash out at people in an attempt to calm your soul…yet the truth is, it never does." Starfire said. "I…have had bad things happen to me. Yet I find I can put them aside, place them in the past, and move on. Humans seem to have such…trouble doing that. Like they think they can find a solution for pain in pain. Is it not like striving to put out a fire with gasoline?"

"Well, I don't know about that…the number of aliens we get trying to avenge themselves on Earth heroes says that your people is unique for being able to put it aside. I mean, there's Sinestro, Zod, the Manhunters…plenty of others, really. And some of them make Machiavelli look like Ghandi."

Starfire was silent.

"…I mean, it's not universal! I mean, I'm certainly not holding a grudge about you guys thinking I was crazy. I KNOW I was acting crazy. I don't think you can ever make generalizations about Tamaranians…I mean, look at your sister."

Starfire looked at Gauntlet pointedly.

"…man, I am bad about pointing at the elephant in the room."

"No Robert. I prefer it. It makes me hopeful that the misunderstandings in your mental ways are not irreversible. Yes, my sister was…led astray by such things, mixing with her dark feelings to make her the way she was…but that was her choice. She could have resisted. She could have understood. My parents and people…we failed with her in ways, yes…but for the blame we bear, she too must bear her part. And technically Machiavelli was not Machiavelli either."

"…what?"

"He mostly just wrote down his observations on how the leaders he watched acted, put it all down to try and buy favor with another, ended up on the wrong side of a government change, and by the time it was done his name had become a pejorative. The ruthless duplicity his name supposedly stands for mostly applies to what he witnessed rather then what he championed."

"…wow."

"I have been reading Robin's books." Starfire said with another grin, which faded. "I am all right, friend Rob, and so are so kind for caring. I just wish I had answers for some of my questions. I have learned a great deal from your planet. It had helped me put some aspects of myself that some might find…unlike me, in perspective. I just wish I knew if it was making me more of a person…or less of one." Starfire said, with a musing expression on her face.

"…Hey, I think Robin is calling a meeting. Let's go see!" Gauntlet said as he sprang up, grabbed Starfire's hand, and pulled her out of the room.

* * *

And down in the city streets, the mysterious motorcycle rider zoomed past an alleyway.

And in the shadows of the narrow space, a pair of headlights suddenly flicked on.

* * *

"My friends! I have called this meeting to address a serious problem, and that is the fact there has been entirely too much moping these past few weeks!" Gauntlet said in the Titans' main room.

"What?" Beast Boy said, leaning back from where he was sitting.

"Huh?" Terra said, doing likewise.

"Robin, you are not calling this meeting?" Starfire asked her boyfriend.

"Nope, I'm sure Rob can handle it." Robin said, not looking up from his computer. Starfire looked confused, not certain just how this meeting had started.

"That's right! WAY too much moping! You've exceeded the Moping Parts per Million in the local environment as suggested by the EPA! Moping doesn't get anything done! I really must ask why we are so high in moping!"

"No crime." Robin said off-hand.

"Hey, we took care of Dr. Light last week!"

"No COMPETENT crime."

"Well maybe but…still too high! Therefore, I have prepared a list of anti-moping activities, as approved by the Journal of Moping and Moping Sciences."

"There's no such thing…" Robin said semi-seriously, and then a magazine hit him in the face. He picked it up where it had fallen and examined it. "Huh, there is. I'll be damned."

"Dude, we're fine. Why don't you just sit down and play video games with us?" Beast Boy asked.

"Oh no! Studies show that the same muscles used for extensive moping are also used in the playing of video games!"

"He's right you know." Robin said, flipping through the magazine as Starfire sat next to him.

"Fine, I'll do something else. Here Rob." Beast Boy said, offering Gauntlet his controller.

"And I'll play standing on my head!" Terra jokingly added, as she actually got up and did a handstand. "Huh, the world looks very different from down here."

"No no no! Don't interrupt the list of the Anti-Moping activities! First rule of not moping: DO NOT MOP…that parody sounded better in my head. Anyway, here's what we can do! Play water polo!"

"We don't have a pool, the bay isn't suitable, and we don't have a rulebook." Robin said from his computer.

"Drat. Okay, let's play a game of Red Rover!"

"It would just turn into whose superpowers can trip the others up better. Plus I'd always lose." Robin said.

"Drat! Okay, we build a monorail so our city's citizens can get around quicker!"

"Simpsons already did it." Robin said, still not looking up from his personal computer.

"DRAT! Okay, we take advantage of certain strange government wounded egos to get one of our own sent into space!"

"…dude, we go into space all the time." Beast Boy said.

"We went into space last week because you wanted legit Vietnamese food and wanted it yesterday." Terra added.

"And Simpsons already did it." Robin said.

"…..drat. Okay…aha, we assume a superheroic identity and battle evil doers by throwing pies in their faces!"

"…Rob we already HAVE superheroic identities." Terra said.

"And how would throwing pies in the faces of our foes do anything? It strikes me as ineffective." Starfire said.

"Our methods work just fine!" Beast Boy said.

"We don't need to change them!" Terra protested, though by now it was clear their complaints were in a joking manner.

"It's in our union contract!"

"And I'm no good at making pastries!"

"And Simpsons already did it." Robin finished. Gauntlet gave the teenager a dirty look.

"Fine. We take over the world and rule it via a complex conspiracy!"

"Illuminati already did it. They don't like competition." Robin said.

"Fine! I'm out of the fun things! Let's get a head start on next year's taxes!"

"I'm the only one here who even begins to understand that process and I already did that due to the aforementioned lack of crime." Robin said.

"Will you at least look up from the computer when you address me!" Gauntlet mock-exploded.

"No." Robin replied with a semi-concealed grin.

"Fine. We could have a Roman-style orgy."

"It is not the equinox." Starfire said before anyone else could reply. The other three Titans, especially Robin, goggled at her. "Er, I mean, no Robert, that is not proper!"

"How do you KNOW that?" Terra asked.

"I have also been reading Raven's books. I had mostly read all of Robin's and Friend Cyborg's were full of naked pictures and they all began with the phrase 'Dear Penthouse, I never thought this could happen to me…'"

"Achrheeeeem!" Robin coughed loudly. "It's a nice thought Rob, but we're pretty well occupied."

"Well, I am not. I could make some more of my Florkagry Frappos…" Starfire began.

"OH NO! NO STAR! You can't! Because I am uh…going to go redecorate the kitchen! Right, uh, now! Yes!" Beast Boy babbled as he ran off and returned with an armful of tools.

"Oh. Well in that case I will play the video game with Terra."

"Ohhhhhhhh…does anyone else see those green blobs sliding across the floor…ugh." Terra said, as she finally lost her sense and fell over, having been standing on her head the entire time.

"As soon as she wakes up." Starfire said.

* * *

Despite himself, Rob's activity eventually ended up being playing the game with Starfire and a recovered Terra, while Robin continued work on his personal computer and Beast Boy, stuck in his excuse, had actually started drawing up plans for some remodeling of the kitchen. Whether he had any idea what he was doing, nobody knew, but what was even more mysterious was just where he had gotten all the tools, supplies, and blueprints to actually do a proper remodeling. But then again, Titan Tower did have a lot of rooms.

And down in his personal garage, Cyborg finished off the last polishing wipe of his fully reconstructed T-Car Mk. HedLongForgotten.

"Ah my baby! They knock you down, but you always get back up!" Cyborg said, and kissed the hood…which got him a mouth full of wax. "Ack, shoulda just done that…in spirit…!"

While Cyborg hunted for a towel and/or mouthwash, the motorcycle finished crossing the raised bridge to Titan Island and drew to a stop at the base of the Tower.

And a mysterious car which some might have thought would be following the motorcyclist came to its own stop…in front of Jump City's largest bank.

* * *

"Dear Robin, who would win in a fight between you and Nightwing?" Robin read out loud. Yes, it was this again: perhaps this time there might be some originality in the stolen concept. Perhaps at the same time Robin explained why he always read his e-mails out loud, or maybe that was just the residual effect of the theft. Oh sorry. Back to the fanfic, as Robin gave a somewhat bitter chuckle. "I think the real question is, with all the crap that Nightwing has been through lately, would he even put up a fight?"

"Have we reached that chronological point yet?" Starfire asked aloud.

"DAMN FRANKENFANON!" Gauntlet cursed. Robin ignored them.

"Huh…well there's that…and that…but then again there's that…and that…huh. I think I'm too close to this question to give a proper answer guys. What do you think?"

Silence from the Titans.

"Well?"

"It would be…um…close." Starfire said.

"Um…er…yeah. It'd be close." Beast Boy seconded.

"Uh…um…Nightwing has his strong points…it could go either way." Terra thirded.

"The fans." Gauntlet said, and then gave a wordless yell. "Someone is camping! Stop the camping!"

"There you have it, Hatty Rolfcopter. The fans would win. And my friends really stink at sparing feelings." Robin dictated as he typed.

"Fine! You want the truth! You can't handle the truth! No truth handler you!" Beast Boy exaggeratedly accused. "Bah! I deride your truth handling abilities!"

"Simpsons already did it." Robin said in a deadpan tone.

"Why you…the truth is, he'd kick your butt because he's you on steroids and in a better costume!" Beast Boy declared

"Really. I must ask Dick next time I see him how many giant stone golem things he's beaten up lately." Robin replied, stroking his chin.

"I still say that was clever editing." Gauntlet commented.

"YOU CAN'T EDIT REALITY!"

"Not with that kind of attitude you can't. It's why I was able to remove Pakistan from my personal canon."

"I'll do personal things to your canon…" Robin snarked as he sent the email and called up the next one. "Dear Robin, who would you rather have sex with Angelina Jolie or…Black Canary…" Robin trailed off as all the Titans looked at him. "Uh…well…um…"

Beast Boy helpfully lifted an arm to give his opinion again.

"NO SHUT UP ALL OF YOU DELETED DELETED DELETED!" Robin yelled, hammering on the appropriate button. His teammates just gave him wry looks (even Starfire, who winked at him) and resumed their tasks.

"Awwwwwwww, too bad." Came a familiar voice, and Robin glanced over to see a smirking Cyborg in the doorway. "I could have given an answer that would have really curled some toes."

"Why don't you devote your effort to something practical Vic, like say, fixing that damn glitch in our security system that lets in anyone with a handprint, you pervert."

"Did that four days ago." Cyborg said as he walked by, still smirking. His annoyed front aside, Robin was glad Cyborg seemed all right. True, they might have been moping some over the Zap Pack, but Cyborg had also recently lost his girlfriend in a cruel way and hadn't talked much about it. Robin just hoped he was reading the mechanical teen right on the assumption he seemed to have made his peace with it. He didn't get the impression that Cyborg was trying too hard to seem 'normal'.

Cyborg, in the meantime, had found something new to be amused at, as he headed over to where Beast Boy was measuring a long 2 by 4.

"Oh geez, what the hell are you up to this time, greenjeans?" Cyborg said. Beast Boy glanced at his best friend in a mostly non-serious 'tread lightly, my friend' expression.

"I've decided to do some remodeling of the kitchen."

Cyborg nearly broke down laughing. Beast Boy looked cross.

"Remodel the kitchen? Where the hell did you get that idea?"

"Better then some alternatives." Beast Boy said, glancing at Starfire, who was paying attention to the game. Cyborg picked up the insinuation.

"I see what you mean. But do you actually have any sort of clue what you're doing?"

"You kidding? When we weren't on missions Rita was always trying to do stuff to prove she was just a 'normal woman'. Guess what women like to do? Redecorate. Well, lots of other stuff too, but some do, and she did, and I always got dragged along. I could probably pick out new wallpaper in my sleep." Beast Boy said, as he turned into a gorilla, held the 2 by 4 up against the counter, and then pulled it back as he returned to normal. "Looks okay. Now I just need a saw…"

"…hold it Gar." Cyborg said as he scanned the counter Beast Boy had just placed the wood against with his mechanical eye. "I just did my own measurements and I think that piece of lumber is a touch too long."

"That's the point. I measured both carefully beforehand Vic; it's supposed to be that way. Slightly cramping the wood just a touch will add resiliency."

"No, it's overlong. If you put it in, instead of a firm fit it'll be a strained fit. The wood will eventually crack in the center."

"No it won't. I did all the proper measurements." Beast Boy said as he headed off to fetch a proper saw, lugging the two by four with him as Cyborg followed.

"Really Gar, my eye can do precision work that you might miss with a classic tape measure. Just give me the piece, I can do the minor bit of trimming to make it perfect."

"It doesn't have to be done, it's fine as it is."

"Oh come on Gar, I'm not trying to take over your project."

"I know, but I know I measured this correctly!" Beast Boy semi-snapped as he turned around, leaving the pair standing in front of another door. There was a touch of aggravation in both their tones, but as Robin looked at them they didn't seem on the path to it getting worse.

"You did, but you're missing a minute detail I saw. Just give me the board. Trust me."

"I do. But I also trust that I measured it right."

"You missed a tiny detail, give me the board and I'll show you."

"I got it Cy!"

"I insist that you didn't, give me the board!"

"I'll show you, I'll make a counter that will last fifty years!"

"It won't last fifty weeks with your tiny error, come on B, give me the board!"

"I know I measured it right!"

"You didn't!"

"I did!"

"You didn't!"

"I did!"

"DAMMIT GAR I DEMAND YOU PUT YOUR MASSIVE PIECE OF WOOD IN MY HAND RIGHT NOW!" Cyborg bellowed.

DEAD silence, as Cyborg realized what he'd said and all the other Titans slowly turned their heads to look at him.

Beast Boy smiled widely.

And a voice came.

"Wow, I heard this could be a wild place, but I never expected stuff like THAT."

Cyborg and Beast Boy whirled at the tone, as the form emerged from the door, the dark purple and blue clad female now wearing a long purple cape with a spiked hood, out from which peered a face completely covered by a black mask, white eyeshields contrasting against the darkness of the material. It wasn't exactly the most friendly-looking on sight visage, and that combined with the surprise probably had a lot to do with Beast Boy and Cyborg's reaction.

"Intruder!" Cyborg yelled, arming his sonic cannon as Beast Boy dropped his 2 by 4 and turned into a lion. The purple-clad female took a step back, the white circles on the mask her eyes peered through seemingly widening a bit…

"No. Wait. No need. She's one of us." Robin said, as he popped up and pushed Cyborg's arm down gently. "Hello Stephanie. Been a while."

"Not surprising, if this is how you treat all your guests." Stephanie Brown said as she entered the room while she pulled down her hood, removing her mask to reveal a lovely blonde girl. "Hey Tim. It's been too long."

"Who's this?" Terra asked, the three video game players having ceased doing so.

"Guys, this is Stephanie. She's one of the…Gotham family, you might say. She goes by the name…Spoiler." Robin said, as if knowing the expected reaction.

The Titans stared for a moment, and then both Beast Boy and Terra cracked up. Stephanie rolled her eyes, as if this was a common occurrence.

"Spoiler? SPOILER? What…" Beast Boy laughed.

"Her father was a wannabe supervillain, she got sick of it, and assumed her own costumed identity to SPOIL his plans. It developed from there. One should have respect for names no matter what they may be, isn't that right, CHANGELING?" Robin said, addressing Beast Boy.

"Hey! Low blow!" Beast Boy growled, as he crossed his arms and looked, well, cross.

"A new friend!" Starfire beamed, zipping over to Spoiler…and stopping as if remembering something. "Right, yes. Hello Miss Spoiler. I am Starfire of Tamaran. It is a pleasure." Starfire said, and forcibly took Stephanie's hand to shake it.

"…Uh…yeah…" Spoiler said, giving Starfire a not unfriendly but hard to read look. "Ow, ow!"

"Oh sorry. Forget my strength." Starfire said.

"…wait, is she available? Yes! Yes!" Gauntlet said to himself as the other Titans greeted Spoiler. "Okay, Axe failed me utterly in the past…so I think I'll try being subtle. Play it low key."

"Hi. You must be Gauntlet." Spoiler said as she came over to Rob to greet him.

"Well…I…uh…THE GADSEN PURCHASE!" Rob babbled, and then promptly fainted. Spoiler's eyes widened.

"What the heck?"

"Sorry. Gauntlet here is…strange at times. Wonderful guy. But strange." Terra said.

"Yeah." Robin said. "In any case, that's the team. Nice for you to drop in, Steph…but wait a minute, how did you get in?" Robin said as he sat back down on the computer.

"Well your bridge raiser works on the same process as Batman's computers, so I was able to raise it myself." Spoiler said as she walked over to him and sat down. "As for your building, I thought I was going to have to buzz to be let in when I saw the security, but I decided to see if you'd put me in the system and sure enough putting my handprint in let me in!"

"D'OH!" Cyborg cursed in the background.

"…that would explain why you didn't trip any alarms or alerts." Robin said. "Well, mi casa es su casa."

"Quite a casa. I can see why you hang around. Gotham's just not the same without you, Tim." Stephanie said, a faint touch of longing in her voice.

"So that's why you made the long trip down here?" Robin said in a quiet, neutral tone.

"Well yes and…come on Tim. Don't be so resentful. I heard rumors through the grapevine what was averted here. Even if they're exaggerated…to him I'm just a possible soldier, and half the time a barely passable one." Spoiler said, sounding a touch cross. "But you're almost a son to him. You and Dick. And well…the possibilities…what could have happened…he cares Tim. He's REALLY bad at it, but he cares."

"I know. But I'm not in Gotham. It's different there and it's different here. I don't need constant checkups." Robin said.

"Oh get off your high horse. How many checkups have you had? How long has it been since you had any kind of contact with him?"

"Since Beast Boy said the many bad words to the Batman when we last spoke, a while." Starfire said. Spoiler gave the green teenager a wry look, and he blushed and did a taciturn wave as confirmation.

"I won't lie Tim, that's partly the reason. So why don't we just debrief now on recent events so he can get the info he wants and then we can catch up on old times and knock some heads."

"…not really in the mood." Robin said.

"Oh don't be difficult." Spoiler teased.

"Not really that, Miss Spoiler…" Cyborg said.

"Call me Stephanie."

"Right, Stephanie. But the way this team's last…incident ended was pretty painful. And I wasn't there for most of it, so I can't really talk about it."

"I was though! I can tell! Mememe!" Gauntlet declared as he popped up right next to Spoiler, who started.

"Uh…okay. Since Tim seems…a bit bothered by it. How did it start?"

"Well, in the beginning there was nothing, and then there was the Big Bang, though I agree with Calvin in that it should be named the Horrendous Space Kablooie…"

"Perhaps not THAT far back, Gauntlet." Robin said, looking over, but he didn't seem as irritated as he'd been a second ago: maybe Gauntlet had helped smooth it over.

"Okay, okay. Well it basically all started…"

* * *

With the figure entering the bank, holding the small mechanical device in his hand as he casually strolled in. He pressed it against the wall and tapped a few buttons as he walked on.

Past a security guard, who finally noticed he was NOT a normal customer.

"HEY…!"

A blur of motion.

A spray of blood.

A falling body.

And then the screaming started.

* * *

"Dude, you catch what I caught?" Beast Boy said quietly to Cyborg as the group sat and listened to Gauntlet's very creative spinning of the Zap Pack incident, which most of them recognized as his best attempt to take the sting out of the episode.

"You mean Spoiler's looks? Yeah. Think there was something there?" Cyborg whispered back, indicating he had indeed caught the subtle nature of Spoiler's expression towards Robin.

"I dunno, Tim's pretty closed to what he was like before he set all this up with us. Maybe there was, or maybe she just wanted there to be."

"Another chronological mismash. Accursed frankenfanon." Cyborg replied. "You think Star's picking up on it?"

"If she is, she's either keeping it to herself or she's learned some stuff from the Kitten incident. Or maybe she just hasn't." Cyborg said. "She's a good girl, and sweet beyond belief, but she does get upset. I just hope she doesn't here, she has a real temper if you can awaken it."

"Yeah. I'd hate to see her if she got REALLY angry."

"Might be unrecognizable…" Cyborg mused, before Robin suddenly speaking up turned their attention back to the others.

"Hold it." Robin said. "Gauntlet, you gave me your communicator as I requested after the Rancid incident. And I know you carry so much junk in your pockets that you probably barely have room for that, let alone a spare. So how did you have your communicator to use on the robot?"

"The one I gave you was a rock wrapped in painted tinfoil." Gauntlet said matter of factly.

Robin arched an eyebrow, and then he leaned down, found a neglected pouch on his utility belt, and pulled out…a circular rock wrapped in tinfoil.

"…so it was." Robin said in deadpan disbelief. "…okay, aside from how I didn't NOTICE that…and more to the point, WHY?" Robin said as he tossed the rock aside.

"My communicator had all my MP4's on it."

Spoiler cracked up laughing, not used to the strangeness that could follow the Titans around. Gauntlet grinned like he'd won the lottery. The young vigilante's amusement helped lighten the grim mood that had fallen over the Tower.

"Are all your debriefings this wonderful?" She asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Well lessee…there was the time we made Doctor Light eat a bug…man that was fun. Was that a beetle or an ant…I can't remember. Must have been a beetle, ants don't come in that color anyway. And then there was the whole HERO incident, man that was WILD, we almost died like three times…"

"Oh no!" Spoiler said.

"But in the 'good' way, where it wasn't too dangerous, just dangerous lite, like we knew that it was danger, but the danger wasn't too much…danger…"

"Plus that's pretty much a weekly quota for us." Robin commented.

"Danger…moping. Danger…Zap Pack…they weren't so wonderful…great, now _**I**_ want to mope…" Gauntlet said.

"No, don't mope!" Spoiler said.

"Okay! You heard the lady!" Gauntlet said. "Well, there was the time that Mortimer showed up…and then the other time that Mortimer showed up. And I understand that he had showed up previously before that!"

"Who's Mortimer?" Spoiler asked.

"A giant sludge monster. By some amazing coincidence, whenever we add a new member, he shows up to attack the city." Robin said.

"…but…why Mortimer?"

"We got sick of referring to him as the random sludge monster, and Gar suggested it." Robin said.

"I thought your sludge monster was called Plasmus?"

"We have two."

"…WHY?"

"I don't know. Nobody has ever claimed responsibility for Mortimer. I theorized he was a variant on Plasmus Slade abandoned as a failure. But then he kept showing up." Robin said.

"With our luck he'll probably outlive us all." Beast Boy said.

"Or get retconned into a world conqueror, thank you very much Brad Meltzer! Anyway…" Gauntlet said, and finished up the story.

"Great, that's done! See Tim, that wasn't so hard! So now what shall we do?" Spoiler asked.

"Oh don't worry, that will cue something. It always does…" Gauntlet said.

* * *

Chaos reigned at the bank and outside when the police arrived.

But all that was lost to the Titans, as the device on the wall selectively blocked their communications. They had no idea what was going on.

And if any police had the idea to call them personally, they never got a chance to try.

* * *

"I must say I am REALLY amazed. Our author's like clockwork with her tropes." Gauntlet said to Spoiler as they and all the other Titans sat around a large table with paper, pencils, and various other things needed for the activity they had chosen when said trouble Gauntlet had predicted had seemingly failed to emerge.

"Let's not jinx ourselves Rob." Terra said, as she looked up from some notes she was reading. "I think I understand."

"So, we all know how to play?" Cyborg asked. Everyone agreed. "Then let's begin."

And Cyborg popped on his Dungeon-Master hat. Which looked a fair bit like a dunce cap. Why no one made mocking comments, you will soon see.

"You find yourself in a tavern on the outside of town." Cyborg intoned.

"Hey, where are the Cheetoes?" Beast Boy asked.

"They're already on the table."

"Mountain Dew?"

"Gar, stop ripping off the Dead Ale Wives and let's get down to business!" Gauntlet said.

"Right…my Druid looks for traps." Beast Boy said.

"So does my paladin." Gauntlet said.

"So does my halfing." Terra said, going along.

"So does my barbarian. And he looks for INVISIBLE traps." Robin said.

"In a TAVERN?" Spoiler said incredulously.

"Friend Cyborg is quite fond of traps." Starfire informed the visitor.

"Your search turns up no traps." Cyborg said.

"Then I quaff a flagon of mead." Gauntlet said.

"The flagon was trapped. You take 4D6 damage from the spike you just swallowed."

"Crap!" Gauntlet said, and reached for said dice.

"Oh come on Cy, who booby traps MEAD?" Terra complained.

"Hey, I got picked as DM, and we'll DM MY way!" Cyborg said with a grin.

"Cyborg is a harsh DM." Spoiler commented to Gauntlet.

"Yeah, he really rules with an iron fist. Or a metal alloy and cybernetic fist…whew, just seven damage." Gauntlet said.

"I sit very still, so as not to disturb anything." Robin said.

"Oh yeah, this is fun." Spoiler said sarcastically.

"You know what, she's right! I cast magic missile at the DM!" Beast Boy declared.

"A dragon eats all of you. Roll new stats." Cyborg said.

"That's it, you're not allowed to be DM anymore." Robin said.

"Command defied, for I am supreme, and you are loser-Mc-No-Character!"

"The alarm would be nice right about now." Gauntlet said.

Silence.

"No thanks. We're finally calming down. That sort of thing would just cause more harm then good." Robin said.

* * *

Dead men tell no tales…nor do they give warnings. And even if they'd tried, they would have fallen on ears made deaf to them.

And panicked, fleeing people are often too concerned with themselves.

As the figure strolled through the bank and, without a care in the world, went to work on the vault.

* * *

"You tread through the old, rotted courtyard of the temple…and you see a freize coming forth from the old stones!" Cyborg declared.

"Wait, a freeze?" Gauntlet said in confusion.

"Dude, it's PHASING THROUGH THE WALL. It must be evil!" Beast Boy yelped.

"My half-orc wizard casts magic missile!" Gauntlet yelled.

"My halfling thief dives for cover! I utter a prayer to my player's deity, Thor, giving him a Plus 1 modifier to fleeing in terror!" Terra yelped.

"My paladin uses his sword of Plus 2 damage on the Freeze!" Beast Boy trumpeted.

"I order my familiar, Halfbeak, to attack it with its claws!" Starfire commanded.

"…I cast detect evil." Spoiler said.

"You detect no evil." Cyborg said. The previous four Titans goggled.

"Guys, I think we've been had." Spoiler said.

"TOO LATE! You already cast your spells!" Cyborg cackled. "Starfire, your familiar breaks its claws on the stone Freize, which is a STATUE BUILT INTO A WALL. Gar, roll 1D6. Oops, you fail your equipment damage check. Your sword breaks in half. Rob, you rolled a critical failure. You shoot Gar in the back with the magic missile. Terra, roll 1D8. Oops, you failed your cowering damage avoidance roll. You take two damage, and will have to roll every ten minutes for the next two hours to avoid infection. Spoiler…nothing bad happens to you. YET. Congratulations!"

"Whoo hoo!" Spoiler celebrated.

"Thor finds you gloating at the wounds of his follower insulting and smites you on the spot. Roll a new character."

"THAT'S IT! NEW DM!" Beast Boy yelled.

"Okay okay, fine. I'll stop making you roll food poisoning checks." Cyborg offered.

"My character sits down on a nearby bench to take a drink of water." Robin said in a testing manner.

"You failed to check the bench before you sit down. Roll on the 'random sharp object' table." Cyborg instinctively said.

"All right Vic, time to step down."

"You're all no fun!"

"And what do you call this merciless nose to the grindstone process?" Robin asked.

"Realism."

"MOVE." Robin ordered, pointing.

"Fine." Cyborg said, as he got out of the DM chair, took off the hat, and sat down on another chair. "OUCH!"

Cyborg stood back up and examined the chair he'd just sat on to find a tack.

"You failed to check your chair for sharp objects. Real enough for you?" Terra said sarcastically.

"…wait…Cyborg is mostly machine, how does that work?" Spoiler asked.

"It's a diamond tack. I made it myself." Terra explained.

"…but he has no nerves!"

"Or human emotion. That makes me feel sad." Cyborg said jokingly, clearly enjoying teasing the newcomer.

"You should probably stop asking questions, Steph. Even if they're good questions." Gauntlet said.

"Yeah. Questions are overrated." Cyborg said, as he sat down on the chair again.

And in the background, Terra's pet goldfish, which has never been mentioned before, caught on fire.

"NO! WALLY!" Terra shrieked, as she got up and ran over to the tank.

"How is that POSSIBLE!?!?" Spoiler exclaimed.

"Like I said…that's a very good question." Gauntlet said. The blonde girl gave him a helpless look.

"Nooooooo…I told Wally to stop smoking in bed…WHY DIDN'T HE LISTEN TO ME?" Terra wailed.

"THAT JUST RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS!" Spoiler yelled.

"Futurama already did it." Robin deadpanned again. "If we're done mourning the goldfish you will never speak of again Terra, we need to pick a new DM."

"Okay." Terra said, already back at the table.

"Now, we can draw lots again…" Robin said.

Rob snatched the DM hat and plunked it on.

"FINALLY! The white, blonde-haired, blue eyed male has the power! Muahahaha…ha…oops. Right. Alright, I've had no time to prepare this, so I'm gonna wing it…"

* * *

Any man can rob a bank.

Very few could do it in a slow, uninterrupted, almost refined matter that went on and on without a hint of resistance. The curse of a town come to rely on heroes.

Indeed, had he wanted, he could have driven off and gotten away scot-free.

But that was not the way the game was played.

And so, in the end, he headed over to his device on the wall, disabling it and pocketing it…

* * *

"I attack the ogre prince with my staff of Plus 3 against ogres!" Spoiler declared.

"Success! The ogre horde is defeated! EXP and loot for all!" Gauntlet said.

"That was the most by the book roleplaying session ever…not in a bad way, just really well run." Robin said.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I would have set up a joke about me being a bad DM if I'd had time to prepare." Gauntlet said.

* * *

…and walked over to the manual alarm as his hand, clad in a black glove and partially protected by a white and red armored high tech wrist gauntlet, seized the lever and yanked it down.

* * *

As the computer signal traveled nearly instantaneously across the city and to the Tower of T, as the alarms within finally activated and blared.

"…the alarm went off without interrupting something?" Starfire said in confusion.

"…brace yourself team. This may be our last battle together." Gauntlet said in a doomsday tone.

"Well yeah, I'm not gonna hang around forever." Spoiler said, as she pulled her mask on.

"…yeah, that's what I meant." Gauntlet said, as the girl flipped her hood up.

She was slower then Robin, who was almost already out the door.

"Can we move guys!" He yelled over his shoulder. "Titans, g…!"

"AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!" Gauntlet declared as he ran past Robin.

"DAMMIT ROB!"

* * *

And in the bank, the figure chuckled blackly.

"Time to play, Titans. Time to play."

* * *

"…oh geez." Robin said, as the Titans arrived several minutes later to the carnage outside the bank, wrecked police vehicles and strewn bodies everywhere. A chunk of the group seemed to be knocked out or disabled, but another chunk was clearly anything but. The Titans checked on the wounded as Robin called for an ambulance, gritting his teeth as he did so. How could someone have done this in such a quick period of time? Why were the streets so quiet? It should have been chaos!

Instead…dead calm, the only sound the wind.

"…I got a real bad feeling team." Robin said as he walked towards the bank and pulled out his staff, as the Titans assembled around him. "We'd best take a quiet touch. No telling what's in there…" Robin said, as the Titans approached the shadowed bank entrance.

"Well, no need in keeping the suspense going then." Came a voice inside the bank.

And he slowly emerged from the shadows at the bank's entranceway, calmly, dramatically, like he was in complete control, the Titans coming to a stop as he came out into the light.

"Hello Titans."

Robin narrowed his eyes, as he looked on the figure, a six foot muscled older teenager with long black hair just past shoulder length: his face's features were harder to tell as they were hidden under a jagged red armored mask that covered most of his forehead and his nose, the only open area the mouth as the mask ran around the outer cheeks and back together to cover the chin: the exposed mouth part had been painted a stark white. The not-quite-yet-a-man wore a dark blue and metallic ridged gray costume with blue high boots and outer pants that were worn over an armored pants (with some blue belts and straps) and armless shirt combo, blue bands wrapped around the teenager's thick biceps before the arms ended in the aforementioned gloves and gauntlets. He wore a white cape that ended just below the knee, and a weapon of some kind was clearly visible on his back.

"Four and a half minutes. Not a bad time. But not a good time either. No." The figure said.

"…and you are?" Robin asked.

"…I am Harm." The figure said, finally named.

"Harm…" Robin said, as the name traced at his memories. "…wait…aren't you dead?"

"I got better." Harm said, gesturing with his arm.

"Same treatment as being turned into a newt then?" Gauntlet cracked.

"Oh, Monty Python. Clever, clever. What next, complaints about flesh wounds? I thought you were the funny one, when obviously you've been watching the work of British has-beens instead of getting past first base with a woman." Harm said darkly.

"WHAT!?"

"You heard me. You don't joke, you are a joke. Amidst like company." Harm said.

It was not easy to fluster Rob. Harm had just done so.

"…that's it, you're going to get squished now." Cyborg said as his arm transformed into his signature sonic cannon.

"No. No. I think not." Harm said.

Cyborg fired at his foe.

And Harm's arm blurred behind him as he yanked a broadsword/scimitar fusion-esque blade from his back, bringing it before him as Cyborg's sonic blast struck it…and was absorbed into it, the power vanishing into the sword…

"What the…!" Cyborg said.

And re-emerging as Harm slashed out and fired the energy back, as it struck Beast Boy before he could react and sent him flying backwards with a scream, before he crashed violently into the side of a car.

"B!" Cyborg cried.

"Beast Boy!" Robin echoed.

As Harm gave a low, dark laugh, spinning his sword in one hand for a few seconds and then gesturing with the other in a motion of challenge.

The game was on.

"NEXT!"

_To Be Continued_


End file.
